Scaled Down Scales

...And the Hundred Heroes...

…Capture the Crystal Key…

Relvain Blackaxe the Dragonpinner saw the fleeing slaves pointing upward. Not believing they would fight hard for their Githyanki overlords, she was not surprised they were fleeing.

What she saw next did surprise her: The the Githyanki themselves were fleeing.

They had more to fight for. She was part of the third wave of the attack, but even that wave should not be enough to collapse Garaitha’s Anvil’s defenses.

They, too, pointed upward.

Relvain looked where they pointed.

The admiral’s flagship, the Cev’ren, was making its escape, its sails aflame.

A cheer went up from the Hundred Heroes. Yet she was not cheered.

“Remember the mission!” she cried. “Kada’ne must not be allowed to escape!”

And began running to the dock where their maps had indicated his flagship had been berthed. “That’s where we’ll find Team Admiral,” she told herself. The priest who had been healing her in the fight followed right behind.

When she got there, she found Nox Rhasgar helping the semi-conscious members of Team Admiral onto a Githyanki vessel. She introduced the priest, Sered to the others.

She was able to help with the sails and get the ship moving quickly, but Aurora lost control and their ship spiraled right on past the Cev’ren.

Then grapples shot out from the pirate vessel and latched onto their ship.

It was only then that she realized who had set the sails ablaze: Admiral Kada’ne was standing over the unconscious body of Andrea Ravn.

Admiral Kada’ne looked up from the body of the unconscious Dragonborn. “No!” he shouted, as his minions fired their grapples into the scout ship spiralling past them out of control. “Pirates will be pirates,” he told himself as his men leaped onto the grappled ship.

Nox Rhasgar knew they had to drive the Minions from their vessel. But he saw an opportunity to hit even more before they had time to come across. Quite a few of them had gathered near the forecastle of the admiral’s flagship.

So he hit them with an Ignition burst before they got their chance to board. They had nowhere to run, so they jumped onto two of the Astral Whitewings. The overburdened reptiles dropped suddenly and flew back to the shipyard.

“That should cut their shrieking.”

She and Delis concentrated on the other Minions as the admiral came across to their vessel and was engaged by Relvain. Finally the only minions who remained were the Psychic Archers.

And one Whitewing with a couple of minions on its back.

Its Stunning Shrieks were even worse than the Psychic Shots from the archers, so Nox concentrated his attacks on the flying reptile. Eventually, he was able to drive it back to the battle below.

Delis the Unselie was concentrating on the Psychic Archers which had so bedeviled them on the docks. But now they had their admiral to protect them. Kada’ne would point at them just as she got them in her sights and banish them — temporarily — to another dimension.

Sered the Skywalker got the message: Relvain wanted him to go over to the other ship, to prevent the admiral from using his flurries to bounce back and forth between them.

He was pretty sure the dwarf didn’t know the advantages of sticking close to a Priest of Pelor, Going over to the other ship was easy. And back, if necessary.

He strolled on over to the other vessel. Walking on air.

“That’s why they call me Skywalker,” he told Delis who was standing open-mouthed on the other side.

The admiral did not make it easy for them. Another flurry of blades — this one centered on Relvain — left her in need of healing.

They were all in need of healing. And the only mass heal Sered could do required them to group up. Close together. Where the admiral’s Flurry of Blades could be used on all of them.

The Flurry of Blades could be used for another purpose: Kada’ne used it on Relvain, nearly killing her; when the flurry got him clear of Relvain, he used a Telekinetic leap to cross back to his flagship and engage Sered.

“Oh, well,” he thought. “Time for the Aura of Astral Radiance.”

His body began to glow with swirls of divine radiance darting ever further from his body until the area within 15 feet was granting both protection for his allies and destruction for the enemies of Pelor.

“Not quite a mass heal,” he shouted. “But, if you’re bloodied stay within the aura and it will heal you!”

He didn’t tell them they would also do more damage to their enemies.

Protected by the aura, Relvain was able to get between the admiral and Sered. That gave them all they needed to bring down the coward. The entire area between the forecastle and the sterncastle was dangerous to Kada’ne now. Whenever he entered that main deck of his own flagship, the divine radiance attached him and protected the enhanced Team Admiral.

When they searched the admiral’s body, they found the crystal key Haryssus and Bejam believe is crucial to taking control of the Sovereign Gate.

When they flew both ships back to Garaitha’s Anvil, they found a surprise: The Hundred Heroes, backed by the slaves who revolted against the Githyanki, had routed the remaining slavers.

Megan Swiftblade told them how it happened. “When the Githyanki saw their admiral fleeing the grabbed the remaining ships and fled as well.”

It made sense to Sered. “So they were not willing to fight and die for leaders who would not stand with them?”

“The few left behind either died bravely, scurried to hidey holes in the shipyard, or surrendered to the Hundred Heroes,” she told him. “We are still ferreting out the last of the hiders. With the help of the ex-slaves, who know the place better than we do.”

...To Help Nox Rhasgar...

…In a Desperate Chase…

“Not hard to keep her alive,” he thought. “Relvain attracts all the attacks and then blocks them. Either that, or they glance off her armor.”

When the blows did land Sered easily healed her. He didn’t even have to exhaust his own health to do so.

The a cry went up among their enemies. The Githyanki were all pointing upward — which in the Anvil meant toward the great portal which occupied the center of the demi-plane. Their cries were not happy. The ship they watched was damaged and lurching upward, almost out of control.

“Kada’ne! Kada’ne!” they shouted, among much else. As they began to flee — some leaping on other craft to get away; others running to hide in the storerooms of the shipyard itself — Relvain came over to explain.

When Sered told him that was good, that no more heroes need suffer and die, the Dwarven Shieldmaiden disagreed.

“Remember the mission! We are trying to stop the admiral to get the Crystal Key he carries.”

Then she took off running.

Sered could think of nothing else to do but run after her. She seemed to know where she was going.

That turned out to a ship, at dock. A small ship. Some kind of scouting ship for the Githyanki navy.

“Pirates,” Sered told himself. “Pirates would need a fast scouting ship to find their targets in the Astral Sea.”

A lone Dragonborn was helping other adventurers onto the ship.

“The admiral is getting away!” Relvain shouted to the Dragonborn.

“I know,” the Dragonborn replied. “We have to chase him down. His ship is badly damaged. And Andrea Ravn is on it, trying to damage it further.”

“Damage it further?!”

“Last I saw her, she was using her breath on the sails. I don’t know what’s gotten into her. She says she has the Blood of Io. Says we all have it. All us Dragonborn, anyway.”

Along with an Elven Ranger they introduced as Delis, they helped the others onto the ship.

They unhooked the lines holding the ship to the dock and it lurched upward.

“Not as awkwardly as the admiral’s flagship,” he admitted. "But we’re going to have to learn fly this thing, if we’re going to catch Kada’ne before he reaches the portal.

Andrea Ravn continued her game of cat-and-mouse. She knew her allies were shooting at the admiral’s flagship. Some of their blasts were hitting. But she had no way of letting them know how well she was doing.

Nox Rhasgar agreed with Sered’s assessment. Controlling the scout ship — known as the Iliyoru — would be difficult. Seeing the sails flapping loose in the wind, he sent Relvain aloft to secure the sails.

“I may not know how to sail this craft,” Relvain shouted from the mast. “But I can surely pull on a rope!” She did just that and the mainsail was no longer flapping.

The scout ship pitched under Nox’s feet as Aurora tried to bring her under control, swinging wide over the shipyard below. He could see some Githyanki and Coalition forces still locked in combat, neither side giving ground in the ongoing assault.

Then suddenly, a group of white shapes peeled away from a skirmish with the Coalition’s griffon riders. At first, Nox thought they were running.

Eight white reptilian creatures winged their way up and toward Iliyoru with a shriek, their
Githyanki riders spurring them on. He jumped into one of Spell Turrets and cast one of his Elemental Bolts at one of the Astral Whitewings, which were now assaulting their vessel.

The creature was hurt, which frightened its rider. Nox could now see the reptilian creatures — he wouldn’t call them dragons unless he saw their breath weapons — were ridden by Githyanki.

“Minions, by the look of the way that one is running,” he told the others who took up positions in the Force Ballistas to blast at the other Whitewings and at the admiral’s ship as well.

Aurora was having difficulty figuring out the arcane secrets of the Helm which controlled the ship. By watching the Cev’ren’s erratic flight, Nox guessed Andrea was having some success disabling more sails on the ship ahead of them.

“We might even be gaining ground!” he shouted.

Then Relvain fell to the deck as she tried to swing to the other mast. Aurora gave up on the Arcana and simply grabbed ahold of the wheel and used it to swing their ship back and forth, to prevent the attacks from above from hitting them.

Sered missed twice with the Force Ballista, and Aurora continued working the wheel with great effect.

“I think she’s even learning to speed us up by using the wind,” Nox told himself. An explosion on the admiral’s flagship told him Andrea was having some success. “And Relvain’s great strength has got the rest of the sails under control.”

“Little more we can do with the sails and the Helm,” Aurora told him. “I’m going to try figuring out the arcane controls again.”

Sered fired an Astral Seal at the flagship.

“That will make it easier for me to hit it.”

But whatever Aurora was trying, it failed. The Iliyoru went into an out-of-control spiral which brought it into range of the Cev’ren’s grapples.

...When the Admiral...

…Is Frightened into a Desperate Run

She also decided to trap the admiral by further crippling his flagship, which was still under repair. Without further explanation, she leaped into the air, flew past a Warmaster who wounded her badly, jumped onto the side of the Cev’ren, and set one of its sail aflame.

Nox could see the terrified look on the admiral’s face. He turned to tell Delis what had happened. His words were drowned out by three cracks of lightning.

Before Nox could ask himself whether Kada’ne’s response would be fight or flight, he got his answer: When he looked back, the admiral’s ship was already floundering its way upward.

Although it was rising quickly, he could tell it was not flying as fast as it might.

“Not with one of its sails in flames and its repairs still incomplete.” But it was rising…

…rising toward the portal at the center of Garaitha’s Anvil.

The crew of the other ship was looking uneasily toward their fleeing leader. Nox could tell they knew they were being abandoned to allow Kada’ne’s getaway. So he decided to attack.

They were all perched atop a higher shelf of the shipyard — up where both ships had been berthed. Perched behind a makeshift barricade of supplies and ship-repair parts. The shelf itself protected them from Nox’s sorcery.

So he climbed one of the strange ladders the shipyard workers used to get from one level to another.

And came under withering fire from the Githyanki behind the barricades as soon as he got to their level.

Andrea Ravn knew what she wanted to do: Disable the Kada’ne’s flagship before it was repaired and make a run for it.

Grasping the edge of the gunwale and heaving upward, she saw the nearest sail, blasting it with her Dragonbreath. The Blood of Io let transform the lightning of her breath weapon into fire. The sail erupted in flame.

From her vantage clinging to the rail, she could look directly into Admiral Kada’ne’s eyes. And saw fear … pure unadulterated fear.

He began shouting orders to his crew in Deep Speech. Andrea could not understand the language, but she could tell the crew was confused, somehow conflicted between the their fear of the admiral and their unwillingness to carry out whatever order he was giving them.

Then one of the Blademasters in the crew stepped forward — apparently willing to do Kada’ne’s bidding. He pointed at the admiral, drew his hand into a fist, and threw the fist over the side.

Then Andrea knew what the admiral was ordering. The admiral soared over the gunwale. She just didn’t understand why. She was sure Kada’ne — like most Githyanki of his rank — could telekinetic leap off the ship if he wanted to run away. Why did he need his crew to throw him overboard. From the looks on the other crewmen, she could tell they were equally baffled. Even the Blademaster seemed to be puzzled.

Lightning burst from the admiral’s outstretched palms. His Soulstorm Strike blasted the chains which held the Cev’ren to the dock — surpassing the damage Andrea could accomplish with her Lightning Breath and turning the chains into molten metal. Then he used his own Telekinetic Leap to fly back to the deck of the ship…

… just as the ship lurched upward, into the sky …

…toward the seething portal at the center of Garaitha’s Anvil.

That was when Andrea realized what the admiral was doing: He was running, like the coward he always was.

But this time the coward was running on a crippled ship … with its sails in flames.

And she was clinging to the gunwales of that same ship. She could jump off and rejoin her party. Or she could stay on the flagship and try to stay alive and damage it further. “That would be quite a game of cat-and-mouse,” she thought. “Only who would be the cat? And who would be the mouse?”

“The Dragonborn is not used to fighting without an armored wall in front of him. He rushed right in, never knowing how dangerous that is for a Sorcerer.”

The Psychic Archers from the Iliyoru dazed Nox with their Psychic Shot arrows and had him bloodied in seconds. Delis concentrated her fire on the archers even as the Corsair Cutters moved in to finish the job.

And now the archers were dazing Delis as well.

Nox used a desperate teleport to drop back and heal himself while they finished off the minions. None of whom looked very willing to fight to the death for a leader who had already escaped and left them to fight and die.

They still had to deal with the Warmaster of the Iliyoru. He took Nox right to the brink of death.

But Delis knew she could out-maneuver the Githyanki, even if he was able to take Nox out of the fight. Nox might die, but the Warmaster was going down as well.

The Warmaster seemed to realize this about the same time Delis did. He made a run for his ship, making it back to the deck, trying to release its chains and escape with his admiral.

Delis caught up with him first, then the wounded Nox.

They finished him off before he had a chance to release the Iliyoru. And Delis knew what would come next: a chase — if they could figure out how to fly the ship — and a boarding action — if they could figure out how to fight one of the most powerful Githyanki they had ever faced.

...Andrea Decides...

…To Stop the Admiral’s Flagship.

“We all have the Blood of Io within us,” she told him. “Some of us — like Garen, and now me — just come to realize it more fully.”

She unfolded her wings. Once vestigial, they now were large and strong enough for her to fly short distances.

She told them she was worried. the admiral was trying to get his flagship into condition to flee. And they had no one who knew how to fly the other ship or how to fire its weapons.

She assumed that, if they could set his sails afire, the admiral would have to give up his chance to run.

And they needed to kill or capture the admiral…to get the key he carried.

That gave Andrea something to do with her wings.

She got a running start and leaped into the air. She flew over the first barricade before her wings began to tire.

Relvain the Dragonpinner took up the chant as the third wave prepared to go through the Portals. “A hundred as a thousand. A hundred as a thousand!”

Nox Rhasgar watched in amazement as Andrea flew at the largest of the Githyanki. It drew its silver sword and prepared for her attack.

Andrea landed on the barrel it was hiding behind.

Landed hard, because her wings were tired. The Githyanki drew back to defend himself…

…from an attack that never came. Andrea launched herself once again into the air above him. He swung wildly and his silver sword cut her badly. But she flew over him and landed well behind the line of defenders.

She taunted the Githyanki, but the admiral ordered them to stand fast.

For protection, he ordered the last crewmen off a nearby boat and demanded they stop Andrea. Then he went back to the repair of his own flagship….

…Well, to order the repair. He was yelling at dockworkers as well as the crew of his ship, which was obviously not yet ready to fly.

The admiral was also yelling at the few crewmen who still remained on the other ship. Nox thought he was ordering them to attack Andrea and protect him from the crazed Dragonborn Warlord.

Andrea did not wait for them to attack her. She ran toward the flagship and threw herself one more time into the air. This time she flew to the side of the admiral’s ship and grabbed ahold of some nets hanging over the side just as her wings gave out.

Nox knew what she planned to do next. He saw her drawing in her breath.

She was about to breathe fire and try to set the sails of the warship aflame.

...Through the Giants...

…To Link Up…

Delis saw the Eldritch Giant was now working on the control panel. She was sure it was one of the Fire Giants.

Even though its attention was on its task, it still heard sneaking around in the piles of equipment.

“Better hearing than a bunch of serfs used to toiling at the forges,” she admitted.

Luring the Giants back to the corridor where she could fight them one at a time, she started picking them off one at a time. The Fire Giant Serfs ran for it the first time she hit each of them with one of her arrows.

Then she came to one which was tougher — a Fire Giant Forgemaster.

Krasire made his way back to the Swiftriders. Megan needed to be told they had tried to find a way to get the team going after Admiral Kada’ne. But some giants were between them and the team.

It took the Eldritch Giant longer than Nox Rhasgar expected to bring down the force gates. But he was definitely better at it than the Fire Giants.

Now they were fighting both — Fire Giants and the Eldritch Giant.

He was surprised at how quickly the Fire Giants were defeated. The Serfs ran away at the first opportunity. The Forgemaster broke out of the Blood-Shadow trap Shadowfox penned him in, but he died quickly after that.

“Must not have any protection from my fire.”

Aurora didn’t really want to fight the Giants. When they broke through the force gates, however, she didn’t see an alternative. “I don’t think we can assault the barricades with Giants at our heels.”

Trinity Shadowfox was disappointed the Blood Shadows were unable to pen the Fire Giant, but he was glad it went down.

The Eldtritch Giant was a different story. It kept casting enormous fields of undulating magic.

As soon as he pulled it out of the center — or Aurora whipped it out with her Thorn Whips — it could call it back into itself and send it out as a blast. They were all taking a lot of damage from that.

...Goes in Behind Team Admiral...

…With Delis Erinthal and Krasire…

…trying to maintain contact and Megan Swiftblade’s Freeriders trying to make sure they can all get out. And Relvain the Dragonpinner waiting for the third wave … the main assault.

Krasire was somewhat satified that Aurora had incorporated some of his ideas into the plan they eventually settled on.

Team Admiral were going in first. Megan Swiftblade and her Freeriders were going in on the second wave — which was dubbed the “Stealth Wave.” He and Delis Erinthal would go with Megan and try to help her maintain contact with Aurora’s Team Admiral. The third wave was being called the “Main Assault” — led by The Dragonpinner herself — but everybody knew it was really a feint to draw attention from Team Admiral.

He and Delis were taking a lot of explosives in with them — all they could fit in his Bag of Holding.

When they got to the scaffolding Team Admiral planned to use as their entry point, they found evidence of a fight there. Dead Githyanki all over.

“Looks like their cover was not maintained.”

Privately, Krasire hoped they had just run into a routine patrol.

They placed barrels of explosives a key points on the scaffolds ready to blow if they needed to cover a hasty retreat. That was looking more likely if Team Admiral’s cover was blown.

They climbed the rickety structure and went through the hole in the wall. They found a small storage room. Then a hallway.

At the close end of the hall was a room with two Eldritch Giants bringing in supplies: wood and ingots mostly. At the other end of the hall, they found a forge — sized for giants.

He heard shouting behind him. Before he had a chance to hide, Delis was behind a forge furnace and the Eldritch Giants had spotted him.

The Dragonpinner sat sharpening her axe. The first two waves were just not her style. “I’m not built for stealth,” she said as she prepared for the main attack on the shipyard.

Delis Erinthal had to change her tactics once Krasire disappeared … seemingly shattered into a cloud of crystals.

The Eldritch Giants had spotted Krasire right away. Delis hid as soon as she heard the Giants shouting at each other. She wasn’t surprised they had heard Krasire. He wasn’t very stealthy.

“Stealthy for a rock, I guess.” But not as stealthy as an The Huntress of Winter’s Eye.

She had stayed out of sight while Krasire was attacked by the two Giants. Then he was shattered into a thousand crystals. One of the Giants left.

She decided she should work her way back to Megan without letting the Giants spot her. But the remaining eldritch creature was able to spot her before she got out and she had to start fighting it.

The room, with its giant forges and enormous anvils, proved the perfect battleground for her run-and-shoot tactics, allowing her to hide most of the time. The Giant had no such advantage and Delis found herself humming the tune to “Giants Don’t Sneak.”

Even before Krasire came back — “How did he do that?” — she was pretty sure she could kill the big creature and continue their mission without him. Once he got back they finished it off fairly quickly.

She scouted ahead and found the other Eidritch Giant had joined some Fire Giants who were trying to get through a magickal force door.

Beyond, she could see Nox trying to jam the door against their efforts.

...Fail to Prevent...

…Team Admiral…

…from making it to the docks.

Shade opened the door using the Thief’s Tools which Andrea loaned her. They peeked inside and saw two Fire Giants carrying metal balls from a room at the end of the hall toward an opening in the other side of the hall.

Loud crashing noises emanated from another room at their end of the hall.

She was able to sneak over and see what was making the noise: Two Arcane Giants — who looked a lot like the Eldritch Giants they fought back at the Sovereign Gate — were using gates near the ceiling to bring in supplies for the shipyard.

“Ingots of metal…and heavy wooden beams,” she observed. “I would not like to fight in there where they could drop that stuff on my head.”

At the other end of the hall she discovered a foundery. Elemental and Fire Giants were directing their minions at the forges. So she decided to follow the two Giants they had seen earlier.

The room on the other side was stacked with war materials…and it looked to her like some of it had already been shipped out. Beyond that she could see shimmering force gates and a patrol beyond.

“They must have let the Fire Giants through to the docks.”

She went back to report her findings to the others.

Nox Rhasgar decided to use his Arcana to figure out the panel beside to the Force Gates.

Andrea Ravn agreed they should ignore the dangerous rooms between them and the docks and go straight for the Force Gates.

“Our mission is to get to the admiral before he knows he’s being attacked,” she told them. “The sooner we can get through these guys the sooner we get to the admiral. If we can do that before the Fire Giants and Eldritch Giants know we are here, we might not even have to fight them at all.”

Sneaking as best each could, they made their way to the storage room. Hiding behind some wire-frame boxes — well, Shadowfox hid on top — they sent Nox forward to see if he could open the Force Gates.

She was pretty sure the guards on the other side could not see the Sorceror. The forces of the gates made the air all wobbly if you tried to look through them. Nox made himself as hard to see as possible by sticking close to the wall as worked on the panel.

Andrea was positive they would see him once the gates were down.

Sure enough.

When the gates disappeared, the guards formed up and attacked the Sorceror. Andrea knew he would expect them to rush to his aid. But she had another idea.

“Follow me,” she told the others. She led them around to another Force Gate — which had also been opened by Nox. Then, they were able to attack the guards in the rear as they attacked Nox.

The Sorceror did not wait around to be trapped as he had in the last battle.

This time he telelported out of the fray and joined them in their attack from the other side.

By the time Nox got around to back them up, they were already putting the Giant Fomorian Guards and some of their Githyanki friends on the run.

“Minions,” she snorted, even though two of the Githyanki stayed to fight. Alarms were going up all over and soon more waves of minions were coming at them as fast as they could put them on the run.

She knew they had to stop the waves from continuing, so she told Nox to see if he could re-close the Force Gates.

“And see if you can jam the mechanism. We’re gonna need enough time to fight our way to Admiral Kada’ne’s ship.”

Nox Rhasgar decided to use his Athletics to complete the first part of the effort to jam the Force Gates shut and stop the waves of Minions. “Everybody always forgets how strong Sorcerors are,” With brute force, he unlocked the inhibitors that controlled the flow of arcane power to the gates. Once that was done, however, his bulging forearms could do no more. “Unlocked is unlocked,” he told himself. “Maybe I can do the rest with Arcana.”

Nox tapped into the magic within one of the gates, gaining control of its flow.

Aurora saw how Nox was working the magic at one gate, so she went to the other and did the same thing to control its flow. "Once it’s controlled, though, there nothing more to do with our Arcana. We can turn them on, but it’s going to take some Thievery to jam the controls into the on position and prevent the re-inforcements on the other side from just re-opening them and hitting us in the rear.

Earlier she had seen the Assassin pick a lock, so she called him over to the panel.

“See if you can override part of the mechanism controlling the gates, Shadowfox,” she suggested.

Once the Assassin got the Force Gates back up, she saw it was just in time: The next wave of minions were not minions at all, but some of the Fire Giants they had seen earlier.

They finished off the Githyanki and their Fomorian minions and did a quick search of the bodies.

All they found were a couple of cameos…depicting Emperor Zetch’r’r.

“At least they might be worth some money,” she thought, pocketing one.

...on the Docks of Garaitha...

…as the Infiltration Team Gets Spotted.

Aurora was glad the ritualists had been able to scry the docks at Garaitha’s Anvil. The whole area was under a Forbiddance ritual to prevent scrying. The Wizards from Nefelus told her the power of the Sovereign Gate enabled them to find The Cev’ren in the vast shipyard in spite of these Forbiddance protections.

They showed her a map. Unfortunately, none of the Portals they had so far been able to find were in the immediate location of the admiral’s flagship — The Cev’ren — but a couple were nearby.

Her plan: To sneak in with the assassin’s guild party and try to capture or kill Admiral Kada’ne to get his crystal key; then, they would be followed five minutes later by wave of stealthy adventurers, each trying to penetrate from a different gate; finally, ten minutes after that, the largest wave with dozens of fighters would attack openly in as many locations as possible.

“Hopefully, the later waves will distract them from the main mission,” she told the Hundred Heroes gathered outside the Fane of Chaniir. “Capturing the crystal key.”

They arranged for a special signal when they had found the key to let the Hundred Heroes know they could withdraw.

“Don’t press your fight so hard you will not be able to break off when we find the key,” she warned them.

Across the bluffs and trails surrounding the fane, she saw the mages of the Coalition scribing dozens of planar portals, causing the fading twilight to blaze with eldritch light.

Spread out before them, the greatest heroes of the mortal realm stood in expectation of the battle to come. Most are on foot, a score or more mounted on steeds still skittish from having made the transit through portals from their own lands.

One force of rangers from the desert lands south of Elsir Vale make a last check of the tack on a flight of griffons.

No one spoke.

At Aurora’s signal, Bejam and his mages activate the planar portal in front of her, and a flare of white light cut through the darkness. Within that light, hazy images of the shipyard flare to life — windowless stone buildings, the open spaces between them thronging with Githyanki and giants.

Shadowfox introduced her to the crowd and she got them worked up before Nox made his speech.

Around her, the Hundred were ready, waiting to move at their word.

Nox made his speech: short but powerful:

“Using the advantage of our surprise, we will hit them — one hundred as a thousand.”
— the final words of Nox Rhasgar’s
speech to the Hundred Heroes

“Hundred as a thousand! Hundred as a thousand!”

Shade was impressed by the way the crowd reacted to Nox’s words. Picking up on them immediately, they began chanting the words louder and louder as Team Admiral stepped through the gate in front of them.

A Githyanki patrol spotted Nox almost as soon as they began to work their way toward their goal: a storeroom they hoped would lead them to the admiral’s ship.

“I guess we’ll have to fight our way in,” she told the others.

The fight did not go well for them. Nox got surrounded — not the sort of position the Sorceror was used to fighting from. Shade herself went down and had to play possum while Aurora healed them.

But she was not a true healer.

“Just a Druid with some good healing spells,” she told himself. The Druid was also summoning animals — firebirds and wolves mostly — to help with the fight.

Then she suddenly realized their mission was not to kill this Githyanki patrol, but to get past them.

In a flash she Ghost-on-the-Rooftopped up the construction equipment and made it through the hole in the wall to the door to the storage room.

“Alas, it is locked.”

She tried to pick the lock, but could not open it.

Looking back down at the rest of the kidnap-the-admiral team, she saw they were in desperate straights.

Nox went down — it was the first time Shade had ever seen him taken out of a fight. Aurora stabilized him, but Shade had to Ghost-on-the-Rooftops back down to pull a potion from the Sorceror’s belt and revive him.

That gave them just enough to finish off the patrol.

“I guess killing them works, too,” she said. “And this way they cannot get help.”

They searched the bodies, but found nothing beyond the usual silver weapons carried by all Githyanki. They knew they had to move on if they were going to be able to use the next wave as a distraction.

...Is a Time for...

Krasire…

In her dream she had finally reached Queen Ileosa and returned her stolen broach. The queen had offered her a job, a job in the Queens Guard. Somehow Andrea knew Nox had gotten a job there, too. Even though he was not in the dream this time.

“Had to kill the darn imps by myself.” She knew she was lying to herself. The House Drakes in the dream city of Korvosa had helped her finish them off. “But the queen didn’t seem so bad. Maybe the rumors aren’t true. The king’s line has always been cursed.”

She found a line at the World Gate. The mages of Nefelus were apparently putting Whitefire Marks on as many of the heroes who were gathering as possible. The cat-girl Druid in front of him was not impressed by the Hundred Heroes.

“Look like wandering mercenaries to me,” she said surveying the crowd.

When they got through the World Gate to the Sovereign Gate, Andrea saw it was well-guarded. She recognized one of the guards — a Freerider named Ragnum Dourstone. Ragnum told them the Githyanki were still trying to use the portals.

Andrea wondered aloud how long it would take for Admiral Kada’ne to catch on.

“We questioned one moving alone, said he was from Utargarth, Utargarath, something like that. Someone named Kada’ne sent him to the fane to see what’s up with the team supposed to be holding it. It’s a safe bet there’ll be more like him coming through soon enough.”

Andrea had good idea what Utargarath was: “Utargaraith is the name of the interplanar shipyards,” she told the Druid, “where the Githyanki build and repair their fleets of astral craft and airships — Garaitha’s Anvil, as it is most commonly translated.”

They found Krasire and took him down the long stairs. Beyond the astral vortex, the exhausted Bejam stood with Haryssus, the works of the eldritch giant’s library spread across the tables.

“We have gained a valuable ally in our fight against the Githyanki,” Bejam said, nodding to the giant. “I have learned much of the operation of this place, but I fear that it spells our doom all the same.”

Haryssus told them the only way to control the Sovereign Gate was to use one the four crystal keys to the plinth at the top of the ivory stairs.

Queen Vlaakith held one, but her key was said to be lost when
she was destroyed.

Zetch’r’r holds one, taken from one of Vlaakith’s captains slain when the new emperor came to power.

Kada’ne, admiral of the Githyanki fleet, holds one.

Do’kan, general and master of the Githyanki ground forces, holds the third.

Remembering what Ragnum Dourstone had said about the admiral, she suggested that was the key they should after.

Bejam told them he had sent word to the Coalition leadership, requesting that they come to the fane for a war council that can decide the Coalition’s course of action.

When they got back to the Chaniri’s cave, however, not all members of the Coalition leadership had made the journey. In particular, Eoffram Troyas remained behind in Brindol to help deal with a Hobgoblin uprising.

“I hope it’s the real thing this time,” Andrea thought. The last time the representative of Brindol had been concerned about Hobgoblins, it was a ruse intended to win votes for the leadership of the Council.

Amyria is here, as are other Coalition members. Andrea recognized Fariex, even though he was in human form.

The cautious Quelenna Entromiel was there as well, potentially undercutting any hope Andrea had of inspiring the Coalition into a quick response to the Githyanki threat.

The war council took place in an abandoned library in the fane. Megan Swiftblade and a dozen other heroes of the Coalition are on guard, but the bulk of those who have come to defend the fane are outside, getting their Whitefire Marks, in line at the World Gate, or in the Well of Worlds, keeping watch against a Githyanki attack.

Bejam tried to convince the Coalition leaders of the danger posed by the extension of the Sovereign Gate’s powers to the World Gates. Andrea told them their walls would be no use against an enemy who could teleport vast armies past their gates.

But Quelenna Entromiel took the lead arguing for caution.

“We are far from our homes and families — the places and people we are bound to defend. This place, these planar sites you speak of are meaningless targets. A majority of our many lands’ heroes are here now to defend these places, and for what?

“This is a fight we cannot win, and as such, it is a fight we cannot consider. Waiting here for eventual attack or, worse, seeking out the Githyanki stretches our already over-extended resources past the breaking point. Instead, we must ask what we might do to hinder the Githyanki. Slow down their plots to give us time to plan a proper defense of
our homelands.”
— Quelenna’s speech to the Council
at the Fane of Chaniir

He called on all his years of experience as one of the secret leaders of Waterdeep. The Lords of Waterdeep did not rule openly. They did not make public speeches like this one.

That did not mean they didn’t have to be persuasive. They had to convince people individually.

“That gives me a lot of experience in convincing other leaders,” he thought. Leaders like the members of the Council.

He could tell his speech had not swayed Quellena. But he was surprised when the vote went against them.

“Not that she could have been convinced.” he thought. “Her mind was made up long ago. I though I could convince the others.”

But Megan Swiftblade was a different story. She seemed moved almost to tears by his words.

“The Coalition’s so-called leaders don’t know what they’re saying,” she snorted. "Bankers and merchant lords, the lot of them. If you say we need to strike this Garaitha’s Anvil, the Freeriders are with you. But there’s nearly a hundred of us — the Freeriders and the other adventurers who have answered your call — here all told, come together to show our strength. With you leading, I promise the rest will follow.”
— Megan Swiftblade’s reply
to Quelenna after the vote

Cain Shadowfox was frustrated. They had a rough map of the docks at Garaitha’s Anvil. But everyone seemed intent on promoting their own plans for how to attack it. They needed to strike hard and fast. But the admiral was known for his caution. Some even called it cowardice. As soon as he knew they were coming for him, they were sure he would flee.

Bejam told him, “The Garaitha docks are set with two score permanent portals.”

He knew it could not be that easy. “Those sigil sequences are one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Githyanki empire,” he pointed out.

“Good,” he told the wizard. “We can teleport right to the admiral’s flagship.”

“We don’t know for sure where the flagship is located,” Bejam told him. “Maybe we can scrye the location.”

“Once again they must have powerful protections against scrying,” Andrea pointed out.

“Yes,” the wizard admitted. “But the power of the Sovereign Gate might be used to overcome those protections.”

As leaders of the Hundred Heroes, Cain thought they could come up with a plan but everybody seemed to be pushing their own ideas, rather than working together.

He thought they should send in the sneakiest of the heroes — maybe even the Freeriders themselves — to infiltrate the shipyards. A distraction was suggested. Andrea had her own ideas about the attack.

“What do you think?”
— Amyria to Aurora
when planning reached an impasse

“Well,” Aurora said, “I think we should lead the attempt to capture the admiral. If we go in first, we will be less likely to spook him into fleeing.”

“What of the others?”

“They can attack once we have had a chance to infiltrate and grab Admiral Kada’ne,” she explained. “They must attack with full force, even if we do not believe they will take the shipyards and hold them.”

Amyria seemed impressed with her ideas. “Everybody will need to be ready to retreat with the admiral once you capture. The Hundred Heroes will have to avoid committing to an all-out attack if they are going to be ready to escape when the time comes.”

She suggested they have a signal to let everyone know they had captured Admiral Kada’ne.

Then Amyria turned to Nox and asked him what he thought of the plan.

“Sounds like a good one,” the Sorceror told them. “If we can get in fast enough, we may be able to catch them before he turns tail and runs.”

They headed through the World Gate to tell the Nefelese ritualists what they needed from their scrying rituals.

...and Learns Much...

…About her Powers

Nox Rhasgar remembered the giant had warned them to go back. Not so much a threat, he thought, as a warning.

Andrea was easily convinced. And, when the Warlord told Relvain she could see magickal shackles on the hands and feet of the Astral Giant, the Dragonpinner decided to go along and concentrate on the Githyanki Shade which had appeared before them. This one looked stronger than the ones they fought back in the fane and was armed with two bastard swords.

But the real problem was the slippery, wet surface of the ivory bridge. Nox was able to climb back up the stairs to where it was dry. He could still hit the ghost from there. No matter where it went.

But the others found it harder. Relvain slipped and fell into the seething vortex of magic. She had a hard time even climbing out.

Andrea had an easier time getting out, but she slipped back in repeatedly.

The Dreamer found herself once again in a swamp looking for a Giant Centipede. She knew she had to kill it to create the Undead Centipede which would one day be known as Nightshade. Even though she was good at stealth, it didn’t seem like there was much to sneak up on in this swamp. She decided to try tracking the creatures. She wasn’t much good at tracking, but it proved easy. “Giant Centipedes leave very distinctive footprints.” When she found one, however, it bit her…

“Back in the secret room at the Fane of Chaniir,” she told herself. But this time she was not wrapped in chains. “Lots of noise outside.”

So she sneaked out and found the fane was bustling with activity. The Alliance was moving in. A Wizard from Nefelus named Bejam filled her in. The fane was cleared — even the Chaniiri they had rescued were gone.

Bejam introduced her to a group of Wizards experimenting on the bodies of the Painbringers they had killed. They were able to transfer some of the magic in the Whitefire Marks — strange tatoos that glowed with white radiant light — to her forearm. They told him the tatoos would enable her to go through a powerful gate to join the strike force that was reconning some place of power they Githyanki were using.

When the ritualists in the next room sent her through, she found lots of dead Githyanki.

“I see Nox and the others have been through here. Lots of scorch marks on these corpses.”

She found a pool of magickal water and a room with two dead giants, then a room with nothing but four mirrors and a stairway leading down.

“Ivory stairs, all carved from a single piece of ivory.” Grim was not sure she wanted to meet the creature whose horn produced such a stairway. At least 300 feet long, she realized by the time she heard the sounds of fighting below.

When she got to the bottom, the fight was not going well. She and Nox were able to damage the powerful ghost they were fighting. When she used her Executioner’s Noose to slide the creature into the maelstrom of magic, it simply used its telekinetic powers to leap to one of the pillars in the vortex.

There Relvain and Andrea had a hard time getting to it. So Grim leapt out to the pillars herself like a Ghost on the Rooftops. She was able to pursue it from pillar to pillar, eventually forcing it back to the bridge.

The ghost returned to its pillars as soon as it could, leaving Relvain once more out of the fight.

“You’re doing something that none of the rest of us can do,” the frustrated Dwarf told her. “You’re herding it.”

Then Andrea felling unconscious. and Grim knew they were really in trouble.

Relvain the Dragonpinner was frustrated. She could see they were close to losing the fight. And she could not get to the ghostly Githyanki as long as he stayed out on the pillars. Just when Shadowfox had finally learned to herd it off them, Andrea went down. “Looks like our healer is dying.”

Andrea Ravn regained consciousness to find herself looking up at Nox. The Sorceror had just poured a potion down her throat.

“Not the Potion of Regeneration I gave him,” she thought, tasting it on her lips. “It must have been one of the Potions of Vitality we found.”

She knew their only chance was if she could keep herself alive. So she healed herself and tried a Defensive Rally to pep up the rest of the party.

“Can’t afford to lose our only healer,” she told them.

Then Trinity Shadowfox brought out a power she had never seen her use before: Blood Shadows. Hiding from the bloodied Shade, she was able to teleport to its pillar and attack it with her Talenta Sharash.

Andrea watched as the blood from the attack drained to the ground and spread out across the creature’s very shadow. The Assassin was about to spill more blood all around the top of that pillar when she noticed a devious grin appear on Shadowfox’s face.

Shaking the scythe-like weapon — first on the next pillar, then on the one behind, and finally at the bridge itself — Shadowfox created three more Blood Shadows. Now, wherever it went it would find a shadow made of its own blood granting anyone who attacked it combat advantage.

When the ghost fled those pillars, Trinity followed it and forced it back onto the ivory bridge, where they were all able to combine their attacks and kill it.

“Now, if she could just learn to combine those Blood Shadows with the herding tactics she uses when she uses the Talenta Sharash as an Executioner’s Noose,” Andrea thought. “She could be really effective.”

...(or Blow Down) a Barrier...

…and Find a Giant…

“He kills the most enemies, he draws the most fire, and his defenses are weaker than ours,” she told Andrea.

But Nox was already working on the wards blocking a stairway he had found in the room he peeked into. She saw he was immediately able to destabilize the wards by exploiting the arcane energies surging around the stairs.

Relvain tried to lift the metal bars blocking their way, but only succeeded in making them harder to stand on. Andrea told her that the Dragonmark she was using to enhance her arcane powers did not seem to be able to help her exploit the energies in the manner Nox had just tried.

Relvain looked around and saw four mirrors on the walls around the circular room. “I’m just a dwarven fighter,” she said. “I don’t see anything.”

She could tell Andrea had further destabilizing the iron bars blocking the stairs, but that did not stop Nox. He was able to balance on the shifting bars well enough that he got out on them and was again able to exploit the energies surging up from the stairs to weaken the wards.

So Relvain decided to try attacking the bars directly with her axe. But her glancing blow only overloaded the wards, destroying the bars and releasing a blast of force which hurt the rest of the group, but left her unharmed.

“It’s only force damage,” she told them. But Nox took further damage when he fell to the stairs below.

It took Roland the Betrayer two days of walking through winding jungle paths to reach the shantytown he had seen from the cliffs. The jungles were full of dangers and he had to fight them, but they were nothing he did not expect. “It’s a jungle, after all,” he told himself.

Andrea Ravn was hardly surprised when four Planestalker Marauders erupted — one after another — from the mirrors after the Stair Gate collapsed.

She was surprised, however, at what happened when they began putting some serious hurt on one of the Planestalkers: First, it partially phased into another plane, making it insubstantial and difficult to damage. Then, it teleported itself and her into that other plane.

She found herself in an extradimensional space 10 feet tall and 20 feet wide. She couldn’t see any of the others and she doubted they could see her.

“I guess I’m on my own,” she said, swinging her new sword — the Sword of Bahamat she planned to give to Garen — and connected solidly. Both of them reappeared back near the Stair Gate.

“When they teleport you,” she told the others, “just hit them as hard as you can.”

They finished off the one which had taken her away, then the next one phased, taking Relvain with it.

“When they phase,” she told Nox, “they are about to teleport you to another dimension.”

Then Relvain reappeared, and they killed the Marauder which had taken her.

The next time she was teleported it took two blows to force it back to their plane of existence. “If you could call this place ‘our plane’ of anything.” she thought.

Admiral Kada’ne was still fretting about the reaction to his decision to send a scout to check out the Fane of Chanir. “I know they think I’m a coward. But those fools should have reported back by now. They think that the Sovereign Gate make them invulnerable.”

Nox Rhasgar was hardly surprised when he found himself whisked away to another dimension.

“Andrea and Relvain both warned me.”

He hit the Planestalker with an Elemental Bolt.

“Not as much magic in this place,” he told himself as the arcane energies left his fingers. “But that should be enough to force it to return me do the Stair Gate.”

Sure enough. As soon as he hit it with the bolt, it took so much damage it could no longer hold them in that strange room. They returned to the exact spots they had been teleported from.

After that, it was no problem to finish it off. But it left no bodies to search. The others gave him the Bloodgem. They had figured out what it was. They told him it would improve his defenses whenever he knocked out or killed an enemy.

“Anything that improves my Reflexes,” he told them as he replaced his Amulet of Truth with the blood-red crystal. Even before he had killed anything while wearing it, he could tell it improved his ability to dodge out of the way of an attack. "I can always put the amulet back on if we need to search for hidden doors.

“Or if you want Insight for diplomatic situations,” Andrea reminded him. Andrea had one of her own and she really liked those Amulets of Truth.

Andrea checked out the other door in the Hall of Shards, but it just turned out to be another way to get to the Stair Gate.

“Just as Andrea had predicted,” he told himself.

They decided to go down the stairs.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if we just came back to this room?” the Warlord joked as they started downward. “From above?”

But that seemed unlikely to Nox since there were no stairs coming down from the ceiling. Sure, the dimensions were strange here near the Sovereign Gate, but he did not see how that could happen.

The ivory stair led them downward. Nox estimated they were about 300 feet down when they saw a white light seething in a corrosive whirlpool filling a vast chamber below.

The air was hazy above a stone platform extending from the bottom of the stairs across the seething vortex. Pillars of glowing stone rose above the maelstrom, their surfaces crawling with an ever-shifting flow of arcane runes.

The far side of the chamber was taken up with what appeared to be an oversized arcanist’s study. Tall shelves and wide tables were covered with well-worn tomes and tattered scrolls.

He was sure Andrea was going to love this place. She was always looking for more rituals, even though she couldn’t perform them all.

A violet-skinned eldritch giant glanced up in surprise at their approach, the Whitefire Mark burning at his wrist as he held up a hand in warning.

“I am Haryssus. It has been long years since any but the masters of this place breached the Stair Gate, but those who did so lived no longer than will you. I have no quarrel with
you. Flee while you can.”

Nox could tell the words were more a warning than a threat. Andrea confirmed this a few seconds later by telling him and Relvain she could detect faint traces of magickal shackles around the giant’s ankles and wrists.

“I don’t think this giant is the real threat,” Relvain told them, shaking off her race’s natural hatred of giants.

A sudden flare of yellow-white light heralded the appearance of a ghostly Githyanki. Larger than the shades they fought in the fane, this creature was wielding twin bastard swords, a white light burning in its eyes as it attacked.

...To Protect Nox...

…From a Hazard Both Friendly and Unfriendly

As she watched Nox attack the Astral Giants in the Shard Room, Andrea noticed the room itself seemed to be a hazard.

The floor and ceiling, composed of huge crystal shards, each had pure planar energy surges within their shards, which focused and honed it like lenses into twin pulsing spheres of white light at the bottom and top of the chamber.

When Nox used an arcane power — in this case his Elemental Bolt with an Elemental Escalation — these Astral Nexuses aided his efforts, but the backlash from that aid could hurt him as well.

Then the Astral Nexus in the ceiling began shooting balls of pure astral essence at the Sorceror.

Using her Dragonmark for focus her Perception on things arcane in nature, she saw that she or Nox could calm the local arcane energies. If successful, the area around them would be outside the hazardous region for a short time.

Andrea could tell that if Nox tried to calm the local energies he would not be able to focus on subduing the Astral Giants.

“So I will just spend as much of my concentration on using my Dragonmark to calm astral energies as it takes,” she told the others. “As long as Nox stays close to me, he should be safe.”

The Dreamer found herself back in the dream: the one where Obanar sent her to investigate the camp of the Hill Giants besieging the City of Argent. Only it was more of a cave than an encampment. “Makes sense,” she thought to herself. “Hill giants would find the nearest cave and set up camp there.” Still it seemed a bit more well-appointed than a makeshift bivouac in an empty cave. “Must’ve been planning this for a long time.” Once again, she found herself in a room with a bunch of giants. She noticed a Fire Elemental dancing in the flames of the hearth. Dashing from the Common Room, she found herself in the quarters of the Hill Giant Shaman. She tried to sneak through, but failed. Captured by the giants, she almost forgot who she was under their torture. Then she woke and remembered: She was Relvain Blackaxe the Dragonpinner

Troops were being brought in through the Portal, which Bejam was now calling “The World Gate.” Defenses were being set up: around the Gate … and outside as well, according to a Freerider she recognized. Sections of the fane had been walled off and mages she recognized from Nefelus were poring over the books Andrea had found in the libraries here.

One of them recognized her and waved.

“I did save their city from Chillreaver,” she thought as they went back to their books.

Bejam told her about the World Gate and the dangers it posed. When he told her the rest of The Order of the Black Feather had gone ahead to scout some mysterious location to which the Gate connected, she volunteered to go and help them.

“But first you will have to be given a Whitefire Mark,” the Deva Wizard told her. “Only Githyanki and their most trusted servants can pass through the World Gate. The Whitefire Marks are how they identify those servants.”

She knew enough about Githyanki to know that Bejam really meant “slaves” when he said “servants.” Just being polite.

A group of Wizards working on the bodies of the two Fomorian Painbringers were able to help Bejam transfer a Whitefire Mark to Relvain’s forearm.

“You can cover it with your armor,” he told her. “But it will feed upon your own life force to power its effects.”

Thus empowered, she was able to step through the World Gate — with the help of some of the ritual casters studying it — to find herself in a strange room crackling with arcane energies.

“Which makes sense,” she told herself. “Bejam said they were siphoning vast amounts of power from the Material Plane to this location.”

That was why the Order had been sent to clear the place.

She found Nox and Andrea in a lounge area. They were trying to bottle the magic-infused waters of a pool there. They only got two of their bottles filled before the arcane energies of the pool were depleted.

“We’ll have to wait 24 hours for the pool to be back to full strength,” Andrea told her. "We don’t have time for that. We can expect more Githyanki to come through here before it replenishes itself.

Andrea gave her one of the vials. “Drink this to turn a short rest into a more thorough sleep.” The other vial went to Nox.

They told her about another room — accessible from both sides — where two Astral Giants were meditating on what appeared to be Ritual Books. Relvain could tell Andrea could not wait to study the books herself.

They decided to try Diplomacy on the giants. The giants weren’t having any. They started blasting as soon as she opened her mouth.

When Nox returned fire, the Astral Nexus above them blasted him as well. When he was hit, Relvain found herself caught in the secondary burst which centered on Nox.

She was dazed by the blast. She decided to concentrate on defending herself while she tried to shake that off.

Which took her longer than she expected.

“Why are there no reports from the Sovereign Gate?” Admiral Kada’ne shouted. “Send someone to check on them.”

Nox Rhasgar saw that Relvain was having difficulty shaking off the effects of the white burst of astral energies. So he concentrated on shooting Energy Bolts at the Astral Giants. They separated, each heading towards a different door at each end of the platform bridging the room.

Eventually Relvain emerged from her daze to leap across to that bridge and engage the giants directly. By then Nox had knocked one of them out and was concentrating on the one which remained.

The one which Relvain was now forcing to concentrate on her.

Made taking it down that much easier. “Quick fight,” he thought to himself.

After the fight, they searched the bodies and found a Bloodgem Shard and 480 platinum pieces.

But Nox was already ready for the next fight. Peeking through the doors at one end of the bridge, he found another strange room: a round chamber of pale gray stone.

The air inside flared with swirling currents of white light — four circular mirrors were set along the walls, their surfaces rippling like quicksilver. In the center of the chamber, the stone floor was replaced by an uneven grid of black steel bars.

A stone plinth stands at the center of the barred floor, its sides set with glowing keyholes. Beneath the bars, steep ivory stairs could be seen twisting down into a haze of white light.

Using his Arcane powers, Nox was able to determine the ambient astral energy on the other side of the door was harmless. A stronger pulse of arcane power was surging, however, in the four mirrors.

Something was lurking within their silvered surfaces, waiting to be called forth.

The Trihorn Behemoth Andrea was riding had feet that were bigger than any giant had, so he suggested the Dragonborn Warlord wait at the mouth of the Portal Chamber until the Githyanki realized their weapons had disappeared.

Only one of the strike force noticed Nox sneaking in. His shouted warning was too late. He ran to the pile of weapons, grabbed them, and teleported back to the Portal Chamber which was sorta located in the middle of the lounge. There he threw the swords into the Astral Mist.

They didn’t quite go as far as he had hoped. The weapons just floated in the mist where he threw them.

“Oh, well, at least they don’t have them.”

Relvain the Dragonpinner found herself once again in the bowels of a Hill Giant fortress. “I must be dreaming again,” she thought. She remembered that in this dream Obanar had sent her to scout the area the Hill Giants were using as a base of operations to attack Argent, the Silver City.

When Andrea Ravn swallowed the Potion of Regeneration, she felt it sap the last of her emotional and physical reserves.

She hoped it would keep her alive long enough for Nox’s plan to work.

She charged around the curve of the wall on the back of her mount. The Behemoth’s heavy footsteps convinced her that sneaking up on the Strike Force was something best left to Nox and Jax.

Keeping the Githyanki from getting their weapons back proved harder than they expected. The Mindlashers didn’t seem to need them and the Warmongers were able to get past her using their Telekinetic Leaps. The Astraan — who was the only Githyanki carrying his weapon on his person — even helped by using his telekinetic powers to give the Warmongers extra leaps.

The Astraan’s weapon — a silver dagger — proved less effective.

“He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn,” Andrea observed as he watched the Astraan try to hit the Trihorn. “Or the backside of my mount.”

Eventually the battle focused around the only chokepoint between the Githyanki and their weapons: the doorway to the Portal Chamber.

By inching her way into position to flank the Mindlashers and give her mount a chance to use her horns, she was able to get to a spot where she could heal Nox.

Who was now beset by the Warmongers who had retrieved their weapons. Beset inside the Portal Chamber.

The Portal Chamber where Nox’s magickal fire seemed incapable of missing. The Warmongers died first, then the Mindlashers. The Astraan surprised them when he ran. Instead of heading for one of the other exits from the lounge, it leapt into the Astral Mist and then to the Portal itself.

Andrea knew the Portal was some kind of Sovereign Gate, capable of sucking magickal energies from other realms, even other Planes of Existence.

Yet it had no runes: the runes that were key to understanding every other gate or portal that she had ever seen.

“How can you find it without the runes to concentrate upon?”

She was so desperate to understand the Sovereign Gate that she used all of the arcane powers her Dragonmark gave her to try and perceive how the Portal — or Gate or whatever it was — functioned.

But all she got was a brief vision of the place where the Astraan fled: some kind of shipyard where an Astral Fleet was assembling.

...The World Gate...

…to the Well of the Worlds…

“Damn Imps,” Andrea Ravn swore as she woke up from the dream of Korvosa.

She had been determined to beat them this time. She had convinced Jaz and Nox to think about Korvosa as the Chaniri priests performed the ritual that would allow them to all be in the same dream.

But the result was the same: The mad prophet foretold of doom involving a plague and Nox — who appeared as a vengeful friend in this dream — was once again able to heal himself of the madman’s disease; the imps attacked again, drawing the attention of the Korvosan Guard; once again, the guards found the queen’s broach on her and carted them all off to the castle…

…and once again their sleep was less restful than it should have been.

“So we’ll have to go through the World Gate tired and angry,” she told the others.

They took Krasire’s mount, but not their own. Jaz rode it, while Andrea and Nox would try to make it to the door. Even without opening it — “Who knows what’s on the other side?” — they might be able to wedge themselves into the vestibule and avoid the worst effects of the Astral Mist.

Jaz decided against entering the dream as a drug addict. It was what Andrea wanted her to do, but it sounded just a little too dangerous. As they meditated on the mythical city of Korvosa, she imagined herself as the friend of a drug addict who was strung out on Shiver. Gaedren Lamm, her friend’s drug dealer, would still have to pay for his crimes, but she would be just a little more Streetwise. It turned out that meant that Andrea didn’t even recognize her in the dream. And Gaedren Lamm was already dead. On his body Andrea found a broken broach. They took it to a jeweler who refused to fix it. He recognized it as the queen’s stolen broach and he didn’t want to get caught with stolen property.

But they still had to go through the World Gate — through something called the Sovereign Gate — to the Well of the Worlds.

“The Alliance needs to know what the emperor plans to do with all this extra magickal energy they are pulling from our world,” Bejam told her. The Wizard from Nefelus was convinced the Githyanki would not be increasing their risk of discovery if they were not expecting to use the Material Plane’s magickal energy for something important.

That meant they had to go back to the Well of the Worlds soon, even though Nox and Andrea had been forced back the last time they tried by some kind of Astral Shade. They expected it to be even stronger this time.

“It hadn’t been attacked in thousands of years the last time,” Andrea told her. “This time it may be expecting us.”

The Dreamer found himself once again escorting Andrea through the streets of Korvosa. The riots were still going on all around them, crazies screaming about dooms coming down on the city. Once again, one of them rushed at the Dreamer while shouting about some plague which was coming to the city in the future. Once again, the disease he carried was very real … very much in the present. Once again, the Dreamer shook him off and was infected himself. Once again, he healed himself. Once again, they made their way through the Academae District. Once again, he and Andrea looked at each other — the drug addict’s friend was not paying attention — and he fired at the imps who were attacking them. Once again, he missed and the imps got the broach. Then the Queen’s Guard showed up. Once again, they clubbed the imps, found the broach, and hauled them off to prison for possession of stolen property. The Dreamer awoke, as Nox Rhasgar … once again, rested … but not well rested.

Nox Rhasgar knew what his job was: Blast his way past the Shade and get his back to the door. The vestibule by the door was the only place he could make a stand without getting swept by the Shade into the Astral Mist which surrounded the Sovereign Gate itself.

Jaz was coming through on Krasire’s mount — a hippogryph which could fly out of the mist. Andrea could fly — a bit — using her vestigial wings.

But Nox would have to rely on the others if he should find himself swimming in the stuff. As much as he like casting in the room filled with arcane energies, he didn’t want to find himself adrift in the Astral Mist again.

Getting the Shade out from between him and the door wasn’t as hard as he expected. He hit it with an Elemental Bolt — this time it didn’t turn substantial — it teleported to another location and hit them with an Astral Shockwave.

But he didn’t get his back all the way to the door, and the thing’s next teleport put it right between him and the door.

Eventually he was able to work his way all the way to the door and pour on the damage. Jaz was getting the hang of her Backstabs and Sneak Attacks.

The Shade got Andrea down several times, but her regenerating armor kept bringing her back to her feet. Nox downed his own Potion of Regeneration just in case it was able to knock them both out.

Then the creature started to work on Jaz as well. If it got them all three out simultaneously, it could finish them off, one by one, even with their regeneration going full blast.

They managed to kill it just as Jaz was bloodied for the first time.

“Not a lot of time to spare,” Nox thought to himself as they sent Jaz out to explore the next room.

Andrea Ravn swore she would never again try the streets of Korvosa in her dreams. But she had to admit she had to sleep sometime. And that meant the possibility of dreaming. “What was it that Jerath always said about that?” she asked. “I remember: ‘Aye, there’s the rub’.”

Jaz remembered the trick she and Maggie used to play on their teachers.

At the Black Dragon Society Enclave, they were each taught to impersonate the same people — sort of stereotypes, Maggie liked say, although their teachers called them “archetypes.” One of these archetypes was named Jasmine. They practiced Jasmine with each other so much their Jasmine voices became indistinguishable from each other.

Eventually their physical Jasmine disguises become so close the pictures their teachers gave them that Maggie — who was much better at disguise than Demyse — was able to duplicate her Jasmine disguise.

Perfectly.

So perfectly their teachers often mistook one for the other. This enabled one of them to sneak away for various forms of mischief while the other pretended to be the other … as Jasmine.

She thought about this as she slipped through the door of the domed room where the Sovereign Gate was located.

“Just a curving hall,” she thought as she worked her way around to the right. Then she found a kind of lounge, filled with couches.

Beyond the couches, the dome opened into a window. Out of the window, Jaz could see the Astral Sea. Floating there were other globes. She was able to imagine that the dome she was in looked much like those, if she could view this one from the other globes.

Lounging on some of the couches: Githyanki, Warmongers and Mindlashers; the one who seemed to be the leader was armed only with a silver dagger.

“They don’t seem to be expecting us,” she told herself, noting they had left their weapons — except that silver dagger — piled on their gear nearby. “I better report back to the others.”

They seemed to be gathered around a pool of water in the center of the lounge.

“Might be just the thing that Andrea was hoping to find when she brought that bottle.”

...To the Well of Worlds...

…And Quickly back again.

As his companions rested from their battle with the last of the Githyanki invaders, the robed Githyanki told Nox Rhasgar the temple complex was called the Fane of Chaniir. Andrea had already convinced their leader, the priestess known as Talanee, to share some of their secrets.

Now that they had helped them clear their fane of invaders, the Chaniri — which is what they called themselves — were glad to share their story and answer Nox’s questions.

“The only problem,” he told himself, “is I’m not sure what to ask.”

They told him they were planning to leave. After they had consecrated the bodies of their dead and buried them.

“This holy place has lost its sanctity," Talanee told him, "debased as it is by the blood of Zetch’r’r’s traitors. Our fate lies elsewhere now.”

He knew that Zetch’r’r was the new emperor of all the Githyanki. Until now, though, he had no idea that some Githyanki were opposed to his rule, almost loyal to their previous ruler — Queen Vlaakith.

“Zetch’r’r is a dog leading dogs," the Chaniri leader told him. “But those who lash themselves to his leash see not the chains he wears. The false emperor talks of rebuilding the glory of the Githyanki, but he is a pawn of forces he has not the mind to understand nor the will to stand against.”

Talanee continued: “In the long eons since the gods and Primordials fought for control of all creation, Bahamut and Tiamat have undergone a never-ending sibling war. Driven apart yet drawn constantly together by their dichotomous natures, the two gods fight endless battles, both face to face and through their proxies in all the many worlds."

When Andrea woke up, Nox could see she was interested in this part of the story. She asked about it.

“Among all races, long ages of peace follow epochs of tyranny as each deity ekes out a temporary victory over the other,” Talanee told them. “But in the end, always, the battle continues. Until now.”

Nox wanted to know what was different about the War Between the Dragons now. The Githyanki priestess started to answer before he could even ask.

“In this age, a new war looms between these two ancient adversaries. On both sides, armies amass across worlds in preparation for brutal conflict, but Tiamat means to see that this battle with Bahamut is the last. The dragon queen seeks to slay the Platinum Lord, and Zetch’r’r has sworn himself and the Githyanki to the service of this dark goal.”

The Chaniri soon became so busy burying their dead that Nox had time to sleep. He dreamt of a city he had only heard of in dreams. The Fire Archon in his dream about the City of Brass told him the Crown of Fangs could be found in a place called Kosovo.

And now he dreamed of that place.

The streets of Kosovo were already dangerous. People rioting; the king was dead. But the noise of the riots were not the only thing keeping the Dreamer from his goal — the palace — the rioting had wakened monsters in the sewers. The pavement cracked and a horrible creature burst forth. The Dreamer fired an Elemental Bolt at it.

And missed.

Nox woke to find himself back in the Fane of Chaniir. The Chaniri were still burying their dead.

Well, not burying them in any sense that Nox was used to. They cleaned the bodies, consecrating them for burial. Then they had piled them into the furthest rooms of the fane. Now they were walling up those rooms, using the broken stones the invaders had left everywhere in their path of destruction.

As they worked he asked Talanee why they were being tortured.

“The Chanhiri’s task is to keep watch over the World Gate for the Githyanki," she told him. "In making our opposition known to the plots of the false emperor Zetch’r’r, we were first shunned, then assaulted. However, our craft allowed us to seal the gate in ways that Zetch’r’r’s thralls could not overcome.”

After Andrea woke up, she had some questions of her own. And she began her own research in the library of the fane.

The World Gate was opened by the Chaniri as they prepared to depart through it.

Nox had already used a scroll to send a message to Amyria. He got a response asking for the runes inscribed around the World Gate. When they sent those, help arrived in the form a task force led by Bejam.

Bejam was the Nefalese representative on the Alliance’s Council. Andrea showed him the library and he got to work.

The Nefelese Wizards in the task force wanted to know what the World Gate was. So Bejam asked Talanee and Andrea, who was already studying there.

“The World Gates are the prime portals through which the Githyanki first mastered the connections between planes," Talanee told them. But this answer was not enough for Andrea.

“This World Gate is set within the mortal realm, with others in the Feywild and the Shadowfell. More distant gates in nameless planes are whispered of, but they are beyond my knowledge.”

Nox saw that the Githyanki were preparing to perform some ritual magic at the glowing sphere they called the World Gate. Apparently this gave Andrea ideas.

She showed Krasire’s Ritual Book to the Chaniri ritual casters and asked them if they could cast one of the rituals she could not master: Dream Concordance.

Nox went along with it when she asked him to join her in this concordance: where they could both join each other in a dream about the city of Kosovo. Nox did not share his previous dream about the city.

In the dream, Andrea was trying to take a broach to the queen, but they were arrested instead when the queens guards found the broach on his person. They woke little rested.

Just like before.

The group who came through the Gate had been busy while they dreamed. They were organizing the defense. Apparently they agreed with Nox’s plan to use the Freeriders to patrol the area around the outside of the fane. Inside, they were preparing magickal defenses for the inevitable moment when Emperor Zetch’r’r’s forces realize their strike force had not reported back from the Fane of Chaniir.

Bejam called the Andrea to one of the library chambers in the fane — the one she had shown him. He told Nox, “I do not want the things I have learned to become common knowledge yet.”

He followed Bejam and Andrea there. Bejam had obviously developed some understanding of the operation of the World Gate. He told them of the existence of the Well of Worlds, but Nox could see what he had learned had put him on edge.

“The Githyanki priestess spoke truth regarding the World Gates," he told them. "The circle here siphons the planar energy of the mortal realm, drawing it to a site beyond. This Well of Worlds is spoken of in the lore here, but the fact that the Githyanki have kept the site secret even from Nefelus demonstrates its importance. Indeed, the existence of the Well and its power goes some way toward explaining the advantage the Githyanki have gained in this war.”

Andrea had been more interested in the discovery of the World Gates and how it fit into the history of the Githyanki, but Nox remembered what she said of the The Well of Worlds: “It is a site of powerful planar magic, built by Chanhiir in the lost age of our race and open only to those of Githyanki blood. It is a planar mote existing in no world—fueled by the energy of the Astral Sea but not set within it. The Well of Worlds is the center of the portal network that is the lifeblood of the Githyanki empire. It is the site through which elite Githyanki strike teams travel the planes, including the force charged with seizing the fane.”

“How did they send the Fomorian Painbringers through?” Andrea wanted to know. “They are certainly not Githyanki.”

He already had heard this from Priestess Talanee, but he let the Wizard from Nefelus explain: “The Whitefire Mark is a mystical sigil implanted only in the most trusted servants of the Githyanki — those granted access to the Well of Worlds. The sigils are a permanent magical brand that burns with a white flame powered by the bearer’s own life force.”

But Bejam wanted to tell them more about the Well of the World, even though Nox could tell Andrea was already thinking about how they could use the sigils to infiltrate the Well itself.

“The Well is a place that touches all other places — all planes of existence, all sites in those planes. From the Well of Worlds, the Githyanki have access to anywhere in all of creation.”

But it seemed that even more was happening.

“If the Well of Worlds was merely as this Talanee described it," Bejam said, “a portal for moving the Githyanki’s elite forces — I would wish to know more of it. However, the brief period of my study here has shown that the World Gate is drawing off planar energy greatly in excess of its normal operation.”

“I can see that,” Andrea said. “I have been reading the lore before you got here. According to this library, the planar energy should not be enough to be detectable.”

Bejam agreed, telling them his fellow Wizards were detecting a high rate of power drain from the Mortal Realm. “These books say it is the general policy of the Githyanki to keep drain low. That is probably why the Nefelese never detected it before. They wanted to keep it secret.”

The wizard’s face grew grim. "From what the Chanhiri said, Zetch’r’r had specific purpose in seizing the fane, and I am fearful as to what that purpose might be.”

Andrea asked him how long before reinforcements came through to find out what happened to Emperor Zetch’r’r’s forces who attacked the fane.

“I do not know how long the Githyanki will await the return of their forces from the fane," Bejam told them. "But if they discover us here, their retribution will be swift. We must send a request to the Coalition for reinforcements to hold the fane in the event of another Githyanki assault. For my part, I will convince Nefelus to send more aid of its own. If the worst comes to pass, we can hopefully hold the fane long enough for you to discover what the Well of Worlds is — and what kind of threat it represents.”

“So, you want us to go through this World Gate?” he asked.

Andrea was already ahead of him. “Can your Wizards transfer the Whitefire Marks to us? Otherwise, the World Gate will not let us through. We are not Githyanki.”

Bejam told them he could perform the ritual himself. He and Andrea agreed get the marks.

The ritual by which the Whitefire Mark is bonded to a living creature seemed simple enough, but the exertion that showed in Bejam when he was done showed the potency of the magic that has been imbued.

As the ritual was completed, the sigil flared to life on his wrist, its outline of white flame writhing around the stark lines of a Githyanki blade.

Though the mark could be covered by his sleeve or Andrea’s armor easily
enough, Nox felt its flame still flaring — pulsing in time with the beating of his heart.

While Bejam was completing the ritual, the Chaniri finished opening the World Gate and stepped through. Two Nefelese mages began staring into its murky depth, trying to discern what lay on the other side.

“Beyond the World Gate lies a portal the likes of which we have not seen before. It has no sigil sequence. Rather, its location is fixed by psychic energy and the flow of planar power through it. A force of Githyanki a half-dozen strong arrived there only an hour ago, but we have seen no other traffic before or since.”

So urgent was the need to find out what was happening at the Well of the Worlds that Nox and Andrea rode their mounts through before the others had time to have their Whitefire Marks transferred.

Closer in, Roland the Betrayer saw what looked to him like a thin, tenuous footpath winding its way along the low ridge, just inside the fog line. A wider path headed downhill, into the jungle and in the approximate direction of that hump near the center of the valley. The small hill with defensive walls of some kind near its top. “Not a very high place to build a fortification,” he thought as began to work his way down the footpath.

Andrea Ravn found herself wishing she had not used her Draconic sidestep to escape the Shade’s initial blast.

“It would have proved more useful now,” she told herself. “Or about any other time during this fight.”

It was hard to stay on the platform…

“Although he hasn’t used the Astral Blast as often as I expected.”

While the Shade managed to stay just out of her reach, Andrea used her rudimentary wings to get herself back to the platform — repeatedly. After Nox went into his Dragonborn-fireball form, she had to use her chain to drag him back to the platform, even though he could use his fireballs from anywhere.

She had used her Foe Stone to figure out the thing was vulnerable to Force damage. The thing seemed to be trying to tell her more. It kept vibrating after some of the Shade’s attacks.

“It’s almost as if the Foe Stone is trying to tell me that those attacks have something else to them…”

…Something it just wasn’t able to communicate.

She noticed the creature became substantial after they hit it. Nox was able to set it up with his fire breath and then hit it with his Elemental Bolts. Even Andrea could use her breath weapon to force it to become substantial.

Which gave Nox more chance to hit it with powerful spells. Which seemed to be especially accurate in the magic-infused chamber.

Soon she was wheezing from overusing her breath weapon and they were both taking heavy damage from the Shade. She still could not reach it, so she had no more chance to set up Nox’s bolts. Half of them were passing through, doing some damage, but not enough.

“What we really need is Krasire on his mount.” She knew the Shardmind’s Hippogriff could fly through the Astral Mist with ease. And the Foe Stone said the creature would be vulnerable to his force magic.

Fortunately, she had remembered to memorize the Sigils on the World Gate. They were able to go back through to get reinforcements.

...in the Portal Hall...

…Finally Gets the Order and the Freeriders…

Andrea Ravn wanted to press on quickly to the next room. She wasn’t sure yet she could trust the mystery woman’s skills as a scout.

“Calls herself ‘Jaz’,” she thought to herself. “Yet she couldn’t sneak up on those torturers.”

She threw open the double doors and found another pair of doors just past a small room.

From beyond the second set of double doors came a sudden shout of alarm and the sounds of combat. Over the clash of swords and the shrieks of dying Githyanki, the familiar voice of Megan Swiftblade rang out.

“You laid claim to Elsir Vale, but our lands still stand free! Our people will not kneel to you, mudskin, nor will the wider world you covet! We will not fall!”

“I’m leading the way,” Andrea yelled as she forced her way through those doors as well. She could hear the others following. Even the Githyanki priests were anxious to get in on the battle to free their fane.

Before the stairs on the far side of the hall, Megan Swiftblade stood with the severed head of a Githyanki captain clutched by the hair. The Freeriders were bloodied but defiant behind her, the Githyanki in the chamber spreading out in preparation for attack.

She could tell the Freeriders were outnumbered — for all of Megan’s bravado. As Jaz charged in to surprise them from behind, Andrea took advantage of the fact the invader Githyanki’s attention was all on Megan to get a little surprise of her own.

The Freeriders and the robed Githyanki who were fighting on their side were soon cutting down the invaders and getting cut down themselves. She made a fateful decision and started healing the Freeriders whenever they fell.

“Probably the best thing I can do to win this battle,” she told herself as she instructed the others to drink the potions of regeneration she had brought for them.

Soon the odds were a little more even.

Storm Johnson told his followers, “We need something which will help us intimidate the Djinn of the City of Brass if we are ever to negotiate with them. I have found references to a powerful artifact: the Crown of Fangs.” He told them it was made from the teeth of the first Blue Dragon. “Khazavon is said to have sprung from the ground where one of the Scales of Io fell. He allied with Tiamat from the beginning and fathered the line which became the Blue Dragon Horde. When he was slain, his parts were deliberately scattered, so they could not be used to bring him back. Khazavon’s teeth were used to make a Major Artifact which could possibly help someone who was sufficiently attuned to it to intimidate the rulers of the City of Brass. I will send a message to Amyria and see if she can contact Nox Rhasgar. Maybe in his travels he can find the crown.”

Relvain Blackaxe knew she was having a dream about the Hill Giants attacking the city of Argent. Behind enemy lines. Inside the fortress they had built outside the city. She was fighting her way out. Swinging her axe in frustration, she missed…

…and awoke to find herself alone in the secret room they had discovered in the Githyanki tunnel complex near Thiradeth, an outpost north of Elsir Vale.

No sign of her companions, except the Minotaur who still snored loudly in the corner. Assuming they had pressed onward, she applied the right-hand rule and found another room full of rotting corpses, then a martial-arts training facility.

“Looks like they’ve been here,” she told herself when she saw two more corpses. Unlike the Githyanki corpses she found in the first room, these were freshly killed. And she heard the sound of fighting from the room beyond.

She found a battle royale there: Githyanki corpses everywhere; Megan and the Freeriders with Andrea healing them.

Her allies had even recruited some of the robe-wearing Githyanki to fight on their side. Unarmed, they were willing to fight against the heavily armored invaders who were wielding their silver swords.

She saw two groups of the sword-wielders who were wearing plate. Andrea was attracting the attention of the closer bunch, so she decided to charge across to the others who were essentially unscathed. Well, the robed ones had the far group surrounded — along with some of the Freeriders — but it was taking shouts of encouragement from Andrea to keep them on their feet.

“I’ll give them something to keep their minds off theses cloth- and leather-wearers,” she told herself. For the Freeriders preferred leather so they could keep their bow arms free.

Once Andrea and the mystery elf finished off the other bunch they came over to help. But she had already bloodied one of them.

Maggie agreed to meet with Garen Bladerun. He was interested in her plan to help in the rebuilding of the city of Overlook. The Paladin had plans of his own: to start a new training academy for Paladins of Bahamat. She knew just the place.

As the battle drew to a close, Jaz remembered how to use her Sneak Attacks along with her Backstabs. She found she could even do Sneak Attacks without stabbing her opponents in the back.

Soon she was doing more damage than the dwarven shieldmaiden who had joined the battle late.

Once they were able to concentrate on the last two Githyanki, Andrea introduced her to the others as an Elf. She could tell the Dwarf didn’t like Elves much.

She wasn’t so sure about one of the Githyanki priests. While the other clerics wandered off to consecrate their dead, he was eying her suspicious. “I wonder if he suspects my true race?” she asked herself.

As if in answer, the priest winked at her. Then he walked over and told her he wanted to show her something.

He took her over to the body of a Warmonger he had been searching. From under the dead Githyanki’s breastplate he pulled out a hat.

An ordinary hat.

The force sphere in the middle of the room pulsed ominously. Spitting out the occasional tendril of force.

...Get an Unexpected Rescue...

…Just As a Torture Session Begins.

When Krasire told Andrea of meditations, the Dragonborn Warlord told her to return to those reveries.

“Get some rest. You still look exhausted. We’ll take care of this ambush you’ve discovered.”

Sure enough, while he meditated, Krasire was able to follow their battle telepathically. The ambushers were attacked, killed. And he got his rest.

He came out of his meditations to find Shadowfox chained in the corner. They both seemed to be refreshed.

He heard the sounds of battle echoing through the halls outside the secret room where they were resting. Reluctantly, he unchained Shadowfox and they hurried toward the crashing and roaring.

The roaring turned out to be Deep Speech and was being produced by two Fomorian Painbringers. Apparently they had been torturing a group of the Githyanki in the saffron robes.

This brought both of them up short. They had run into a fair number of the robes as they worked their way through the complex of the tunnels. The robe-wearers chained to the wall in this room were the first they had seen who were alive.

The ruined martial training hall was lined with shattered weapon racks and filled with what appear to be pillars of yellow-white light extending floor to ceiling. These pillars shifted slowly, drifting across the chamber as they flared and faded. In the haze of light, 10 Githyanki in tattered robes were chained together hand and foot and huddled along one wall.

Two hulking fomorians paced before them, one clubbing the sodden remains of a Githyanki corpse with its flail. The other was already attacking a mystery woman who seemed to have joined their infiltration team.

“Look, I know they act like they are full of themselves,” Megan Swiftblade told the other Freeriders. She knew they needed to take some time to heal. “But Garen told me about his cousin Andrea. He and Samwise were the ones who went after Sarshan when he was assassinating Freeriders. We should at least give these Black Feathers a chance to prove themselves. Notice how the opposition has grown weaker the farther in we go? They may be drawing off the Githyanki. For now, we need to rest. We may be able to get some sleep if the Order of the Black Feather has attracted Githyanki attention.”

Nox Rhasgar was frustrated. At first the weaker of the two Painbringers had put the Evil Eye on Nox himself, despite the difficulty it had overcoming his Will.

Yet the Fomorian switched the Eye to Krasire when it became apparent the Shardmind was doing most of the damage. Nox was not used to being beat out by others in that department.

Then he remembered his Flame Bracers. And almost immediately he started feeling the fire. He didn’t even have to transform into his Burning Transformation alter ego. Andrea told him the enemies had poor reflexes, he switched from Ignition to Elemental Bolts.

Sure enough. They were more successful. While the Giant Fomorians had the Fortitude to just power their way through the Ignition fires, their lumbering forms could not dodge a concentrated Elemental Bolt.

“Have to remember that: Ignition for little things that can dodge; Elemental Bolts for big guys who cannot dodge.”

The Dreamer found it dark and strange in the swamp where she hid to find the Giant Centipede. “Must be the Shadowfell,” she thought. “Good place to find slithering creatures.” No matter how she hid, however, she found no suitable creature for her necromantic experiment. For some reason, she knew she had to craft an undead centipede. She even had a name for it once she created it. “Nightshade.” And Cain woke with start to find herself chained in the secret room of the cave complex.

Andrea Ravn was standing between the two hulking brutes, so she was taking most of the damage. Gulping a Potion of the Regeneration, she was able to stay alive. But, boy, was she glad when they finally went down.

“The potion had drained the last of my resources,” she told them. And she offered Krasire the magical components he needed to perform his Comrade’s Succor ritual. “It’s the only way I’m going to be able to survive the next battle.”

On the bodies of the Fomorians, they found:

a dark iron ring;

a pair of tattered gray boots (with kind of a haunting aspect to them, which drew Shadowfox’s attention);

four amulets; and

three gems.

The conversation she started once she unchained the Githyanki and treated their wounds produced some interesting information:

They are known as The Faithful of Chanhir.

They are led by a priestess named Talanee.

Their Fane was attacked by the followers of the new leader of the Githyanki, Zetch’r’r.

...To Help Andrea and Nox...

…Ambush the Ambushers Waiting…

…for them outside the secret room.

Andrea Ravn woke from a disturbing dream with a start. In the dream, she was arrested for possession of a stolen item — the Queen’s Broach.

Unable to return to sleep, she tried to sketch out the city which figured so prominently in her dreams. As far as she knew, it did not actually exist on the material plane of existence. In the dreams, however, Korvosa did not seem to be part of any of the non-material planes.

Once she sketched out the map she was building in her head from the dreams, she noticed that Krasire seemed to be struggling with his meditations. Interrupting those meditations didn’t seem a good idea at first, but the Shardmind soon focused his eyes on her and spoke.

“I have been struggling with the mental powers around us. First they tried to find our hideout. Then they concluded we had left the caves after suffering the attack of the Shades. I think they believe the Shades drove us out after we killed their Mindlashers.”

Andrea asked her if they were still outside the secret room.

“They stay away from the balcony. Seem to know it is haunted by the Shades. They may be invaders in this complex. Seem to know they can pass through the balcony without being attacked as long as they don’t linger.”

The elements of a plan began to form in Andrea’s mind.

“They have reinforced the guardpost outside. We may be trapped in here. Some of them are waiting to ambush us below the balcony. I’ve been able to penetrate their mental defenses. I need to meditate more to get some rest. And to keep anyone elsewhere in the complex from knowing we are here.”

As Krasire resumed his meditations, Andrea told their new companion — Demyse was the mystery woman’s name — and Nox what her plan entailed.

The Dreamer found himself swimming in the Grand Canal of the City of Brass, having scoured the markets of the city to find the information Storm Johnson was seeking. A Fire Archon, impressed with the Dreamer’s ability to swim in a canal of molten fire, tells him the truth: A Cyclops slave Seer has foretold that only the Crown of Fangs can free the slaves bound to the Efreets who rule the city. It is located in Korvosa, the Jewel of Varisia. Just then, Nox Rhasgar woke to find himself back in the caves.

Demyse Darkstrider liked the plan. She would sneak in and make her way down the stairs and try to backstab the ambushers below.

Then Andrea would grab Nox, run out to the circular opening in the balcony, leap through it, and use her wings to glide to the floor, where Nox would unleash a wave of fire on the ambushers.

Like so many plans, it failed to survive contact with the enemy.

First, as she tried to sneak down the stairs, one of the ambushers waiting at the bottom spotted her.

Second, when Andrea tried to fly down carrying the other Dragonborn, her wings did not support the two as well as the Warlord seemed to think they would.

“I would describe it as more of a controlled fall,” she thought to herself. “I bet Andrea could have managed it fine by herself. The Sorcerer may be even heavier than she is.”

The Sorcerer leapt to his feet and sprayed her enemies with fire, while Demyse herself found a likely corner to hide in.

“Too far from the enemy to backstab from here,” she thought.

Spotting a large number of bedrolls closer to the Githyanki, she realized where she would be spending most of the rest of the battle.

“Hiding under bedrolls; jumping out to stab them in the back.”

The Dreamer found herself once again in the city Korvosa. She was attacked by a sick madman-prophet. Then by imps. The Korvosan Guard captured her and found the Queen’s Broach on her. Andrea Ravn woke to find herself back in the secret room in the caves.

Nox Rhasgar found himself unable to escalate his Elemental Bolts. The Warmonger’s Telekinetic Crush did not hinder him much — he never depended much on mobility anyway — but the Warmonger’s Soulsword burst left him stunned.

The Mindlashers could do the the Telekinetic Crush as well. They had no stunning attacks, so they took down the Warmonger first. The Mindlasher were forced to rely on their Psychic Slams.

“Sure they keep knocking me down,” he thought. “But I just get back up and hit them with escalated bolts.”

The mystery lady was putting out a lot of backstabbing damage as well, hiding in the bedrolls and hitting the Mindlashers when they least expected it.

Soon, the enemies were all dead.

“No loot on them, though, since we already looted these rooms.”

Hearing screams from the room ahead, they sent the mystery woman — she said her name was Demyse Darkstryder — ahead to scout after a short rest.

...Shadowfox Alive...

…Cain Finds a Hidey Hole…

…where the remnants of the Order of the Black Feather can recuperate, while hoping their partners — The Freeriders led by Megan Swiftblade — are faring better.

Shade knew she had to be careful. She felt weak. The Dragonborn Warlord had restored her confidence. She was not sure how many times his shouts of encouragement would continue to re-invigorate her. She was able to creep forward to the edge of the balcony. She saw three Githyanki huddled around a firepit below. They were grousing in Deep Speech. She could tell that from their tone. Then three Shades emerged from the broken statues behind her on the balcony, cutting her off from the others making their down from some other room where they had set a fire. “So much for careful.”

The smoke from the fire forced Krasire further into the cave complex. The others were apparently burning the dead Githyanki bodies — which seemed to be everywhere.

The smoke was problematic. It would make it hard to retreat. If they had to retreat.

“I guess we better be sure we don’t have to do any retreating.”

Amyria had given Krasire a Scroll of Sending — a ritual he didn’t know. He was hoping to find some time to scribe it into his Ritual Book.

So far, no time: Amyria convinced Belinda to portal him to Tokk’it’s ship, which was anchored near a remote outpost north of Overlook; Tokk’it directed him to Birkeni, the half-elf captain at the outpost; Birkeni told him about the dead Githyanki his scouts had found, but when he flew Xerxes there the bodies were gone; it was easy to track Andrea’s Trihorn Behemoth to the mouth of a cave where he almost got blown up by an Astral Vent of some kind.

The cave was where he found The Order of the Black Feather burning the Githyanki bodies — “Weren’t they supposed to be investigating Githyanki bodies?” — and fighting Heroic Shades.

Delis Erinthal was taking her assignment seriously. She did know this Krasire fellow at all. He had made his way to the black crag by air, but now he was sneaking up on the other strangers as they fought some shades in the caves. His attack on Shades relieved her somewhat, so she stepped out of hiding and shot the ghost of some Githyanki hero who was assaulting one of the Dragonborn.

Nox Rhasgar was glad to have Delis’s help — and Krasire’s as well. Sure the Assassin could deal out some damage, but Shadowfox had a habit of getting herself into some bad situations…

…like the one she was in right now: surrounded by enemies, cut off from her friends, constantly being cut down, knocked down, and generally abused.

She had that noose attack, which seemed to be able to move her foes away from her. She even used it to drop one of the Shades through the hole in the balcony.

“Then she stopped using it for tactical advantage.” Nox had noticed that Shadowfox seldom seemed to learn from either her successes or her failures. “She just as likely to repeat the things which didn’t work as those which did work. Maybe it’s those multiple personalities of hers. Maybe she has to learn things over again in each mind that she has.”

In the middle of the valley, Roland the Betrayer saw a low rise, more a barren hump than an actual hill. He could just make out the straight edges of defensive walls near the top. Tendrils of smoke rose from what must be chimneys or campfires nearby.

As they searched the rooms where they fought the Githyanki and the Shades of their fallen heroes, Andrea Ravn was worried.

“Trinity Shadowfox is on her last legs,” she told the rest. “I’m not able to heal her now, let alone in another fight.”

Holing up to rest in a cave complex filled with Githyanki and their mind-reading powers posed its own problems. She had an idea about that, too. Her Dragonmark gave her a solution. All she needed was a place to use it.

Which Shadowfox found.

A secret door led to a hidden room. Inside, they found 360 platinum pieces and a Stone of Flame. Andrea kept the stone, even though she knew Nox could use it better than she could.

Shadowfox told them she had seen two more Githyanki who had not joined the fight.

“Gone to get reinforcements,” Andrea said.

She piled all the silver swords she could find into the secret room. Then she told the others to bed down for a long rest. “I’ve got a Mark of Detection. I can use it to cast Eavesdroppers Foil. Some of these Githyanki seem to be invaders of some kind, who killed the ones in robes. Looks like they looted the place. Bet that’s why we found no loot on the balcony.”

She told them she was sure the invaders had not found the secret room. “It wasn’t looted. That means they never found it. Maybe the Shades of their ancient heroes made it hard for them to search the balcony after they destroyed all the statues.”

Krasire volunteered to stay awake and guard the hidey hole mentally. “Eavesdroppers Foil will not protect us from their mental probing.”

“I can rest while I meditate,” Krasire said.

“Good. If they assault us mentally, you can fend off their efforts. They may even think we retreated from the caves entirely. They have to know we were hurt badly.”

Nox pointed out that Shadowfox had bled all over the place.

She told them to sleep and regain their strength. What was it Jerath always said? “To sleep, perchance to dream.”

As she dropped off, Andrea remembered what Grigore told her when Jerath said that:

...Gives Trinity a Clue...

…About the Reaper’s Masque

After her collapse in the library, Cain dreamed: She was still in the manor house of some ancient necromancer, she knew it. But she did not recognize the room. In the ceiling she saw her Reaper’s Masque. She could not reach it. Not without standing on Andrea’s shoulders. Relvain and Nox lifted her there. She reached up and grasped the masque.

And put it on her face. It began to speak to her.

“Hello, Shade,” said the whispery voice in her head when she awoke. Somehow she knew it was the voice of the masque the Raven Queen had given her. “Put me on.”

She put on the masque, and immediately knew that she was beginning to come into concordance with it.

She found herself lying on a bunk in a gently swaying vessel. It didn’t seem to be a vessel floating on water: Although Shade did not remember ever being on a boat, she knew this somehow.

“Perhaps I was on a boat sometime in my previous lifetime.”

The masque told her to investigate, and she did. Telling herself she would have done it without the prompting.

Emerging from her cabin, she found herself on the deck of Tokk’it’s flying ship, heading north. When she asked Andrea where they were going, the Dragonborn explained they were headed toward Thiradith.

Andrea explained this was a Nerathi ruin which had been rebuilt as a watchtower by the Alliance. From the Letter from Amyria, she knew this meant it was near one of the destinations of the portals which Cachlain told them that the Githyanki were using.

Just before sunset, they saw the watchtower in the distance. An upthrust embankment of sheer stone wall atop a white bluff, she could tell the site commanded a sweeping view of the rocky scrubland that spread to all sides.

A gate and drawbridge allowed access across a steep-sided ravine that protected the site on all sides. Sun-faded flags flew high above the ramparts, and the bridge was already down as they approached, landing far enough away to avoid alarming the outpost.

Birkeni, a veteran half-elf fighter, appeared to be the captain here. He met them at the gate, making no effort to hide his relief at seeing them. He told them there were no
stores or services here.

“I offer you free use of the outpost’s amenities and semiprivate accommodation in the barracks hall.” When Nox asked about the amenities he explained that he only meant the weaponsmith, armorer and such.

Once they arrived in the hall, they discovered they weren’t the first to respond to the watchtower’s summons. Megan Freerider greeted Andrea warmly and told her the Freeriders arrived that morning. “Good thing we were on another mission west of here,” she said. “We don’t have a flying ship to get us around so fast.”

Megan goes on to explain the flying ship is how her friend Garen Bladerun got away from Sarshan’s tower when it collapsed in the Elemental Chaos.

“I told your compatriots this morning all that I can report beyond what was sent in our missive. A week ago, one of our patrols found three dead Githyanki within a hundred strides of each other on one of the foothill tracks."

Then the Half-Elf betrayed one of his own bigotries by using a racial epithet.

“The Mudskins had been in some sort of fight by the look of them, but as the scouts came back to report, they were shadowed by a half-dozen more Githyanki, very much alive. Followed them to within sight of the watchtower, then fell back into the hills again.”

The patrol trail from the watchtower to the foothills was easy to follow, winding through thin stands of jack pine and patches of scrub grass that slowly disappeared as the rocky ground begins to climb.

The day was overcast as they reached a marker Birkeni spoke of — a great arch of rust-colored stone, beyond which the wall of the mountain began to rise.

It didn’t take long to locate the site where the Githyanki were found — three patches of blood-stained rock on the trail.

Of the bodies, there was no sign.

As soon as Andrea Ravn saw Shadowfox go down — for the first of many times — she knew her plan was unraveling. The two of them had climbed up to the entrance of the cave the Githyanki were guarding. The plan was to lower ropes for Nox and Relvain. But Andrea sent Shadowfox on ahead and she got spotted. Nox was climbing up on his own and had already reached the lower ledge. Relvain was using the ropes Andrea had lowered. Her progress was slow. And Shadowfox was already down, even if she was only faking.

They found another trail near the bodies and followed to the bluff of black stone which Relvain was climbing. The Assassin scouted it out and found two cave entrances, each guarded by over 10 Githyanki.

Shadowfox told them the Githyanki scouts showed very little aptitude for guarding the cave.

“Although right now they do seem to be doing a good job of beating the pulp out of her,” the Dragonpinner told herself.

With no patrols in sight, the Revenant had clear run of the trails that wrapped around the black stone bluff on both sides, easily spotting two caverns that might be entrances into some sort of complex within. The Freeriders took one and they took the other.

Nox had alreadry reached the top and was clearing out the weaker guards when she got to the top. Andrea was surrounded, guarding the unconscious form of Shadowfox.

“I hope she’s faking it,” she told herself as she waded in. "This looks like a job for a fighter.

The mist around him was virtually impenetrable, but after burying the murder weapon, Roland The Betrayer found it was beginning to clear. Suddenly it parted, and he found himself standing atop a hill. Similar fog-capped hills surrounded a jungle valley that stretched before him. To his left, a massive waterfall fed a river winding a serpentine path across the valley floor.

Nox Rhasgar found some of the weaker guards were pretty easy to kill, so he cleared them out using both his Ignition blasts and his firebreath. Two of them proved to be a little tougher.

One had Shadowfox trapped in an alcove. Shadowfox was garroting him, but let him go without doing much damage.

Nox told her to retreat to the shadows. After finishing off the weaker guards, Relvain did something with her shield that convinced both of the tough ones to rush her. She kept them busy.

“Two with one shot!” he said, as he was able to power two Elemental Bolts to kill both of them at once.

Searching the bodies, they found:

3,500 gold pieces, which Andrea put in her Platinum Pouch;

a crystal globe set with adamantine filigree;

a Jeweled mithral-mesh dagger scabbard; and

three Potions of Vitality.

At the top of some stairs, they found a door. No traps, no lock. Beyond, they found a small landing with a lot of rotting corpses.

Shadowfox was scouting ahead by crawling along the ceiling. Down some more stairs, they came to a turn-off to the right.

Shadowfox heard some voices coming from the turn-off, so the Assassin headed toward them.

Andrea insisted they following her closely. “Remember what happened when she got ahead of us before,” she told them.

When Nox got to the bottom of the stairs, however, he could not help being repulsed by the smell which emanated from the corridor Shadowfox had taken:

A New Shadowfox...

…Makes her Appearance

Andrea Ravn found no further treasures as she ransacked the wizard’s library. History of the Fabled Realm might prove valuable but this did not appear to be where Acererak stored his spellbooks.

They decided to make their way up to the next level of the manor house.

Nox noticed Shadowfox was lagging behind. When they all turned around to see what was wrong, the Assassin staggered back into the library, so they followed.

She grabbed the skull of the fallen naga, and held it next to the masque on her shoulder. She seemed to think the skull — from which the masque was made — looked like the naga’s skull, but the others could not see the resemblance. But Andrea noticed something: Both skull had latent magic on them. And the magic seemed to have the same flavor — at least to Andrea.

Then Shadowfox began to shake, and collapsed unconscious. They tried to heal her, but she remained unconscious. Andrea found a letter in Shadowfox’s clothing.

Reading the letter, Relvain saw it was from Amyria and seemed to be addressing all of them. Andrea wondered why Shadowfox hadn’t mentioned it.

“I guess we were pretty busy fighting the Bone Naga when she caught up with us,” the Warlord thought. “It must have slipped her mind when the fight was over.”

They decide to take Shadowfox down to the landing where they left Andrea’s Trihorn Behemoth. Relvain carried her. And Andrea brooded: “We’ll have to come back here when we leave to take her back to our own time.”

They found traps — of course, they found traps — starting with a spike trap. Andrea got a table from the wizard’s laboratory and used it to bridge the spikes. They found some suspicious holes in the floor ahead, so she used the table again to trigger this trap.

But the spikes or poison gas they were expecting did not emerge. Instead, gouts of flame set the table afire. Andrea had to throw it into the central shaft of the stairwell. They jumped, flew, and strolled — in the case of Nox — past the flames.

Andrea warned the others not to mention Acererak’s future when they tried to convince him to give up the rest of his Sky Metal. “It may help us convince him we are from the future, but he will be less likely to part with the metal if he knows he will need it for his necromancy.”

As they climbed to the top level of the building, she heard Acererak’s voice ring out.

“I offer you one chance to avoid my wrath, you cowardly thieves.”

She saw the robed figure had not turned or even paused in his work. He was turning dials and whispering words of power that Andrea could not really hear — but she felt them within her bones. She was able to hear his demand:

“Throw yourselves from my tower, and I shall allow fate to determine whether you live or die. “Otherwise, prepare to truly understand why I am numbered among the greatest wizards of Bael Turath.”

But Relvain quickly stepped in with some diplomatic flattery, telling Acererak they were from the future and — in the future — he was known all over the world, not just in Bael Turath. Nox followed up with a grand bluff.

Andrea knew they had to convince the wizard they were from the future. She had studied the model for his Tomb of Horrors and knew it varied somewhat from what he had eventually built. The historical record of the tomb’s traps was very extensive. So she pointed out the differences.

“Some of those changes … I was already considering,” Acererak told her. “And the others … I shall now consider. They seem like good ideas. I have to admit, this does suggest you may be from the future.”

They made their way through the slime traps and now faced the wizard across a causeway covered with glowing sigils. He had acknowledged their presence enough to turn and face them directly. He seemed genuinely interested about what they could tell him about the future. And Relvain seized on his interest to Bluff him with a story about his future.

They all turned and saw Shadowfox walk up the stairs, wearing her masque. Acererak greeted her warmly: “Hello, Nightshade.”

Nox Rhasgar did not know why Shadowfox was wearing her masque, but it didn’t seem to be driving her crazy.

The stairs had led them up to an open tower room, the walls alternating between solid stone and open slits that looked out upon the nearby city. The floor of this room ran inside these outer walls, leaving the center as an open shaft which dropped to the bottom of the tower far below.

The floor of the uncovered causeway leading to a second tower. Nox was pretty sure the glowing sigils on the crossing indicated some kind of magic trap.

Against the wall behind Acererak was a massive device of glowing orbs, rotating arms, and crystal tubes, almost filling the eastern wall. He could see the remaining pieces of Sky Metal clearly visible with the device’s internal structure. They only needed two more and they would be able to give Obanar enough Sky Metal to make one of the Implements of Argent for each of them.

“All right. You have convinced me you are from the future. But you are still thieves. They still have thieves in the future, right?”

Andrea admitted there were still thieves in the future. “But we are here on an important mission, important even to wizards as powerful as you are in the future. We are trying to save the city of Argent, which in our time is under assault by forces which seek to return the world to the chaos of the Primordials. The Primordials will have no use for powerful wizards in the future they seek to bring about.”

Then she pointed to one of the pieces of Sky Metal in the device behind the wizard and explained to Acererak how he could replace that piece without using any Sky Metal.

“Very impressive,” the wizard admitted, waving arm an arm. At his gesture, the sigils stopped glowing.

Assuming this meant the traps on the causeway were no longer active, Nox walked across the causeway and examined the device more closely. Using similar logic to Andrea’s, she told the wizard how to eliminate the need for the other piece of the Sky Metal.

“That’s all well and good,” the wizard admitted. “Just because you have proved I could give you the Sky Metal, however, hardly proves that I should give you the Sky Metal!”

Shadowfox — or Nightshade, as Acererak kept calling her — seemed to be be on their side in the argument with Acererak. She called him a fool and tried to intimidate him into giving them the Sky Metal.

That did not seem to work, but Nox noticed that he did seem slightly disturbed by the masque she was wearing.

While he and the others tried to gain some Insight into what could move Acererak to give them the metal, Relvain poured on the Diplomacy to convince him that the future would be good for a great and powerful wizard, but only if it was not controlled by the Primordials.

This was enough to convince the wizard to give them the last two pieces of Sky Metal they needed. He had Nox and Andrea help him fix his device so that it could continue to function without the two pieces and then handed them over.

They went down the stairs to where they left the Trihorn Behemoth and Shadowfox, The Assassin was still there, where they left her, and she was still wearing the masque … on her shoulder, not on her face.

Going back to the portal in the foyer, they used the gem Qwor had given them to return to their own time.

Belinda brought Avenglen and Garen Bladerun with her to Fallcrest. They both volunteered to help her pick up the pieces of her life. Maggie showed up as well, always interested in the aftermath of an assassination. But Maggie didn’t seemed as concerned as the others about Belinda’s own feelings. Her father was dead! Roland was missing and so was Madras Kalgore. Everybody was blaming Roland and his underling, but Belinda was sure he hadn’t done it. But she dared not say so because most people still thought she had a crush on Roland. The only one who wasn’t assuming it was him was Jerath … who was the one who wrote the play about her crushing on Roland!

Relvain Blackaxe listened as Obanar described the Implements of Argent he was going to fashion for them: a ring for Nox, a scythe for Shadowfox, a helm for Andrea, an orb for Krasire…

… and armor for the Dragonpinner. She was really looking forward to that. Obanar said he would look through the Archives of Argents for some designs he remembered. He assured Relvain they were dwarven designs, inspired by their God of the Forge.

They told Obanar they would be back soon to use the implements he was making to break the siege of Argent. They did still need to take care of the errand in the Letter from Amyria before they could tackle the seige. Obanar sent them back to Overlook.

Nox took them back to the secret shop where his friend sold Wondrous Items. They picked up some Restful Bedrolls and Andrea looked at some quills she remembered seeing. It turned out they couldn’t do quite what she wanted. Relvain found a smith who didn’t have exactly what she was looking for. She had to settle for another axe.

Then they were off to check out the outpost which was worrying Amyria.

Turned out to be quite close to one of the secret portals which Cachlain told them were being used by the Githyanki. They weren’t being attacked. Yet they were reporting unusual Githyanki activity in the area.

...A Bone Naga...

…How to Read

As soon as Andrea Ravn saw the glowing eyes of the skull on the top shelf of Acererak’s library, she yelled “Charge!” and ran toward it. That might have been why she failed to notice that the pile of bones between two of the bookshelves was undulating in a snakelike motion.

Nox seemed to notice, however, and soon Andrea was caught in the Bone Naga’s aura. The undead creature was able to daze the Warlord with both its rattle and its swaying, hypnotic motions.

Then a Sword Wraith stepped through one of the walls, and she knew they were really in trouble.

“At least they’re all undead,” Andrea told the others, noting the radiant energy she had put on her sword seemed to be working well when she hit them.

But the creatures seemed to be able to keep them all dazed and dictate who she was hitting.

Then they realized the wraith was healing itself. Nox managed to get free of the naga and position himself on the far side of the room and concentrate his fire spells on the wraith — with a little left over for the naga.

“We’re getting our butts kicked,” observed Nox Rhasgar as he tried to get out of the spells of the Bone Naga. The creature’s Death Rattle kept them dazed while Acererak’s Sword Wraith and Flameskull kept hitting them. And even when they got outside its range, the others could still be dazed by the swaying motion of its most powerful attack.

Shade was handicapped by the Death Sway of the Bone Naga more than the others. She had to concentrate all her effort on maintaining her Shadow Form.

The Shadow Form was good at preventing her from getting hurt, but she needed help getting out of the aura of the Death Rattle and the Death Sway.

And she wasn’t getting that help from her teammates. Not that she had helped them much earlier when she forgot to tell them about the Letter from Amyria. She told herself, “It just slipped my mind,” as she remembered how excited she had been to see the laboratory.

She knew that on its tables someone might have fashioned a bone masque much like hers. Or, hidden in this library, might be the answer to all her questions about about the masque and why the Raven Queen gave it to her.

But for now Shade was just frustrated by the naga. Constantly dazed by its rattle and swaying dance, she could do little except pile her shrouds on the creature and concentrate on maintaining her Shadow Form.

Usually, Shade was able to escape from such predicaments by slipping from shadow to shadow. But in this dazed condition she couldn’t manage that without giving up what she thought of as her true form.

Finally, Relvain convinced her to abandon the protection of the Shadow form. Still, even after she slipped away into the shadows, the creature was able to frustrate her. All it had to do was edge toward the shadow where she was hiding and she was dazed again by its Death Sway.

“I’m telling you,” Jerath insisted, “it doesn’t make sense. Roland was a sneaky bastard, and he clearly was taking orders from Tiamat. But he could have killed Markelhay without anybody knowing. He was angling to marry Belinda and take over as Lord Warden one day. Why would he kill her father in a way that made it look like he did it?”

“I wonder if I could use this bookcase as blocking terrain,” thought Relvain Blackaxe as she remembered what she did to the dragon Chillreaver.

Using her shield to trap the naga against the books, she was able to hold it there against all its thrashing efforts to free itself.

“The creature is strong,” she observed. “But it has no training in Athletics. So it cannot use its strength. And it is dextrous. But with no training in Acrobatics, it cannot use its dexterity.”

Relvain was still dazed by the rattling, but all she had to do was hold on and maintain the pressure her shield had on the naga’s neck. The rest were all able to edge out of the influence of the rattles and kill the wraith and then the Flameskull.

The naga never did break the hold. Chillreaver had broken it — but Chillreaver was an Exarch of Tiamat. The two-headed white dragon was able to flee Icehome once Krasire broken its mirrors and destroyed her iceberg.

After they killed the wraith and the skull, Nox and Shadowfox — and even Andrea — were able to pile on enough damage to kill the naga.

They found some old tomes in the library the magic-users insisted would have considerable value if they brought them back to their own time, but Andrea insisted they keep looking.

The Warlord was convinced the bookcases along one wall concealed a hidden door. She seemed to think the blue gem was telling her of a secret room where another piece of Sky Metal might be hidden.

Sure enough, persistent searching found section of bookcase that swung inward and revealed a room filled with statues. And in the middle they saw a piece of the strange metal on a pedestal.

They were nervous about the statues, but they got the Sky Metal out without problem. Then they went back to the stairwell to climb to the next level of Acererak’s manor house.

...Turns Out to Have Clues...

…About his Future.

Obanar had told her she needed to get in touch with the rest of the Order of the Black Feather to make it back to her own time. They had a blue gem which could be used to teleport through time.

She searched several wings and came up empty. No secret doors revealed their secrets. When she moved further from the main entry, a trap in the floor shot lightning bolts at her: No damage, but she sure jumped.

Past the trap, she found a door partially blocked by Andrea’s Trihorn Behemoth. She managed to forced the door open without pushing the creature into the pit beyond.

“At least I know I’m on the right path,” she told herself.

And soon she heard sounds of a fight.

Roland pulled the bloodstained dagger from the Lord Warden’s body. The orders from Tiamat were still in his hand. The next thing he knew he found himself standing atop a fog-capped hill. Similar hills surrounded a jungle valley that stretched before him. He buried the dagger where no one could find it. But he could not bury the orders from the Queen of Treachery: They were no longer in his hand when he found himself in this strange domain.

He first got through the door by teleporting past it. The gargoyles made him nervous, but it turned out they were not alive, just traps. When Andrea broke open the door to rescue him, flames came shooting out of the mouths of the stone statues, but she was able to withstand the flames.

Still, he was surrounded by two Boneclaws before Andrea could get to him. The Warlord was barely able to keep him alive as the Boneclaws attacked with their reach. And the Skeletal Guardians seemed to be able to get their attacks off more often than they should.

Usually on Nox.

They explained their theories on what was triggering the attacks to Relvain when she got there. But then another one appeared and Andrea became convinced they were creating the arcane creatures.

Relvain began beating her shield in a war-like rhythm and they all turned toward her. First one Boneclaw went down and then the other. Then they surrounded the skeletal figures.

“I guess Acererak is already turning to necromancy, judging by the nature of his minions.”

“I get it,” Andrea Ravn told the others. “We’re not creating them when they pop out of nowhere. They must have been created specially for wizards and sorcerers. Whenever Nox casts an arcane spell, they teleport right next to him.”

Once they finished off the skeletons, they searched the room.

“Obviously a workshop,” Andrea observed. The evidence of necromantic experimentation was all around them, especially in the partially dissected troll on one of the tables.

Andrea found plenty of residuum for her rituals.

“I may not have a lot of them, but this will enable me to do them more often.”

The blue gem glowed brighter whenever they moved it toward the southwest — or what they presumed was the southwest from the position of the late afternoon sun coming through the windows.

And, when they took it into the back room, it just pointed them back toward the stairwell.

Then they found a hallway that led back to the stairwell — at a higher level — and to the wizard’s library. Andrea burst in and saw two piles of bones among the books. But it was a skull with glowing eyes that attracted her attention.

...To Protect Two of Acererak's...

…Pieces of Sky Metal.

Krasire made his way to the Necropolis and found the gate open. Inside he found the tomb of Qwor standing wide open as well.

The maze proved fairly easy for him to navigate because he was able to detect the magicks which had lead the others through.

He found them standing in the burial chamber, surrounded by traps. With the help of the others, he was able to see a path through the traps. But Andrea set off one of the traps.

Fortunately they were all able to hold their breath long enough for the acidic gas to dissipate. Then Nox noticed the chamber was laid out in the pattern of Erathis’s Grand Bastion in the capital city of ancient Nerath. This enabled him to figure out the safest path to the other side.

There they found a door which allowed them to enter Qwor’s Inner Sanctum.

Jerath listened to Grigore’s rantings with growing concern. He did not need his patron going off the deep end. “I know it looks suspicious. And I dislike Roland as much as you do. But trying to convince Belinda he’s too old for her and accusing him of murder are two different things. We have to be sure.”

“Why do you disturb my rest?” Qwor’s ghost asked them.

Nox knew that Andrea’s diplomacy would be crucial, so he helped the other Dragonborn explain that they needed to reforge the Implements of Argent for the new challenges that threatened the pivotal city.

“Why should I aid you?” the ghost asked next. “Are you worthy of the Silver Cloak?”

Krasire explained they had defeated one of Tiamat’s Exarchs — a dragon, as it happens — and killed another. Nox and Andrea helped out by explaining the challenges ahead and the immediate danger to Argent.

Finally convinced, Qwor’s ghost said, "I can see how the Implements of Argent can aid you in these dangerous situations. Unfortunately, rare metal that falls from the sky is required to craft the Implements.

“The only set I know of was lost when a group of champions disappeared into the Abyss more than a century ago.”

When Nox asked what they could do, the ghost continued:

“The only option is to go to the last place where the metal was known to be — Bael Turath, approximately 600 years ago. Within my sarcophagus, you shall find a gem. Be careful of the trap, however.”

Krasire told Nox he knew the wizard — Acererak was his name — who built Bael Turath. But he met the necromancer much later than that, after he had turned to evil.

Then Andrea set off the trap in the sarcophagus, trying to get at the gem. Once again their endurance saved them.

“You’re the one who told me Roland and Juliette would convince Belinda Roland was a danger to her!” Grigore Goldforge yelled at Jerath. “Look how that backfired. Now half the women in Sayre think they’re the most romantic couple in all the planes. Even some of the sensible dwarf women in Overlook!”

“One piece of the sky metal is required for each of the Implements of Argent you wish to craft,” the old man told her.

They assembled in the portal on the plaza.

“Remember that the gem shall guide youto where the sky metal is stored,” Obanar explained. “When you are ready use the gem as the focus of your Argent Portal ritual, and you shall return here, to this time.”

Obanar had a warning for them.

“The past is not a place for you to linger, and you shall not be able to range beyond the place where the sky metal waits. Defend yourselves, but do not try to change that which has already occurred.”

After a flash of light from the circle in the plaza, Andrea found herself standing in another circle, apparently located in the entry-hall of a large manor house. One wall was lined with statues. Andrea thought she saw one of them move slightly, as it were observing their presence.

By noting whether the blue gem glowed more or less as they moved in various directions, they found two secret doors. Once again, Andrea’s lockpicking skills were insufficient to open them. “Where is Sam when we need him?” she asked herself.

Krasire was able to get inside the secret rooms — hidden behind the doors — and find two pieces of sky metal. There were traps on the floors but he avoided them and used his new boots to teleport slowly and carefully in and out of the rooms.

A similar exploration of another locked room found only hideous monsters trapped in magical cages. The blue gem was all it took to lure Krasire into another floor trap.

When he stepped on it, several of the statues sprang to “life.” And a lightning trap zapped him good.

“if you can consider Warforged ‘alive’,” she thought.

Andrea herself got trapped behind one of that same trap because she didn’t expect the lightning to go off again. She had to fight the battle without doing much tanking.

“But my healing skills still work,” she said. “As long as the others get close enough for them to reach.”

She was impressed with Krasire’s damage. The Psion was hitting almost as often as Nox.

...To Show them Where Quor...

…Is Buried.

When Andrea Ravn took Nox to Nine Bells, she noticed the district was much cleaner than the last time she was here. Some of the beggars were sweeping the streets and even the temples looked less woebegone.

They it located in a narrow building. At first, it appeared to specialize in common goods such as rope, tents and bedrolls. But it didn’t take long before Nox figured out that the proprietor — a large half-elf named Myra Edgerton — would show them more interesting things if he flirted with her first.

As she watched the dawning awareness in his eyes, the younger Dragonborn turned to her with something akin to fear. She could almost read his thoughts: “I. Don’t. Know. What. To. Do.”

She was really proud of the kid from the swamp, though, as he steeled himself and decided to bluff his way through it.

“He’s not bad at it either,” she thought to herself as Nox started to flirt with Myra. It occurred to her that the difference between pretending to flirt and actual flirting is not all that great. “I guess a flirt is kind of a bluff in any case.”

At the end of a long, narrow hallway, Myra moved a hidden switch and a door swung inward. Beyond, they found a circular room with a large, ornately inscribed teleportation circle set into the stone floor. Around the outer wall stood display cases and box, desks and large cabinets.

A pile of Restful Bedrolls spilled out of the largest of the ornately carved wooden boxes. The pigeonholes in one of the desks seemed to be each occupied by flints. A silver chime, a flag marked with martial runes, a leather pouch embosed with platinum, and a fancy stylus was displayed in one of the cases.

Asking about their wondrous properties and cost, Andrea settled on the flag. “If we don’t find something better I’d really like that I may just pay the 1,000 gold pieces she is asking.”

Although the Platinum Pouch was tempting as well. “If we don’t find a Bag of Holding, I may have to settle for that.”

She told Nox he might be overdoing it with his flirting. “You may be promising more than you’re ready to deliver,” she whispered to the Sorcerer.

Myra muttered something under her breath, and they suddenly found themselves in another room. This one was octagonal. Crystalline windows revealed they were now on a floor above the other buildings in the section of town where Elyas had sent them.

Andrea could see out in all directions. Exquisite pieced of artwork adorned most of the other four walls. But the thing which drew her eyes was a finely crafted cabinet of polished rare wood with crystal shelves. Displayed in this Dazzling Showcase, she saw five more art objects, including a fan and an opal lozenge.

A small skull made of an unidentified metal floated in the middle of room. It followed Myra around the room, occasionally turning towards her as if expecting a question.

Once Nox diplomatically convinced the half-elf he wasn’t planning to spend the night with her, he got her to show him a piece of coal which was tinged with red. He spotted the rune for fire deep inside it and was able to identify it as a Stone of Flame — a Wondrous Item that Relvaine had told him of.

He bought it on the spot, along with a black metal flask.

“I didn’t know he had that much money,” Andrea said as Nox handed over the 18,000 gold pieces Myra asked.

Now Myra took out a small vial of ink and poured it on the floor in the middle of the room. The blackness spread out in a perfect circle, passing beneath their feet and other obstacles as if they were not there.

The floor disappeared and they floated to the dark floor 20 feet below. She showed them nine more Wondrous Items, but they could afford none of them.

“The Alliance will be honored accept your appointment of Druemeth Goldtemple to the Council. We will be glad to see him assume his duties as soon as he finishes his diplomatic mission to Cachlain.”
— Krasire to Inzira,
The Daughter of the Frostwhite Forest

When Nox Rhasgar thought back on his experience flirting with the half-elf, he realized that it wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. He had smiled at her, laughed at her jokes — even when he wasn’t sure he totally got them — and teased her a little.

In fact, as he thought back on it, he realized that some of the Dragonborn girls he knew back in the swamp might have been under the impression he was flirting them as well. He certainly smiled at them when they smiled at him. He even teased them a lot.

And the way some of them giggled when he laughed at their jokes…maybe he wasn’t getting all those jokes either.

Stepping through the Argent Portal, all memories of playful Dragonborn girls were brushed from his mind. He found himself standing in an ornately beautiful city.

Old, but beautiful.

It stood almost empty, apparently under siege. Defending it was a strange race of lion-like humanoids. One of them came up to them and introduced himself as Rrowthar who took them to an old man named Obanar.

Obanar told them about an undead guardian who haunts the Necropolis in the city. “Seek him out and see if he will tell you how to find the Sky Metal.”

As Rrowthar took them to the Necropolis he handed them a key and told them the Sky Metal was something which could help them make some artifacts which might help them.

The key opened the massive gate in the wall surrounding the Necropolis. Beyond the gate, they found the Necropolis even more silent and still than the near-empty city. A sense of hushed reverence hung in the air.

A cobblestone path wound between crypts and large, elaborate mausoleums. As they searched for some indication of where Guardian Qwor was interred, an undead creature with a longsword appeared from around one of the ancient tombs.

“What business do the living have…” it pointed its sword toward them “…in this land of the dead?”

The blade glowed with dark energy.

“What do you know of the honor of the Champions of Argent?”

Nox listened as Andrea recounted the history of the Dragonborn people — all three of them were Dragonborn — and saw the Wight seemed to be impressed.

So he decided to try to intimidate the creature. That went well as the Wight cowered a bit at his threats.

“Prove you are worthy to wear the Silver Cloak,” it thundered.

Andrea stepped forward again and explained diplomatically all they had done. Nox could see the creature was receptive to such entreaties. So he put aside his plan to prove himself worthy by demonstrating his athletic prowess and continued the diplomatic overtures.

That was all it took. The Wight bowed to him and pointed toward a mausoleum.

“That is where you will find Qwor buried.”

“I always knew that bastard was no good,” raged Grigore Weatherbie Goldforge when he found out Faren Markelhay had been murdered. Apparently Roland and Kalgore disappeared before the killing was discovered. “But not before the killing. Everything Roland was, he owed to the Warden of Fallcrest. And this is how he repays his debts. At least now Belinda will be able to see him for what he really is.”

When the key did not fit in the door, Aleeya realized it would take teamwork to solve the puzzles in the mausoleum.

Sure enough all three of them got through the door by working together.

They found a maze and split up. Without the teamwork, they got lost in the maze and had to use all their endurance to avoid becoming weakened. But pooling their arcane knowledge — a Sorcerer, a Paladin, and a Warlord have a lot of arcana between them — Andrea was able to get them back on track.

Aleeya knew the construction was magickal in nature — the place seemed much bigger on the inside — so he decided the inherent magic might provide clues as to how to navigate their way through the maze. Nox was able to help him some.

He began to the see the pattern in the way the enormous maze was magickally squeezed into the ordinary-sized crypt. “Perhap,…Yes!” He showed the others they through.

He led them into an elaborate burial chamber.

“I’ll bet it’s full of traps,” he warned the others. “These things are always full of traps.”

“You mustn’t come right out and ask her about Wondrous Items,” the Deva warned. “They are in her private collection. Flirt with her first, then she might show you the good stuff.”

“Cachlain has invited me to send an ambassador to his court to facilitate our alliance against Sangwyr. Druemmeth Goldtemple, I ask you to represent me there. Go at once. And make sure the Stone-Skinned King does not double-cross us.”
—Inzira, the Daughter of the Frost-White Forest

“We ride to the east,” Megan Swiftblade told the Freeriders. “Our scouts found tracks near an outpost there. Some evidence indicates Githyanki may be involved.”

Battle-weary, the Freeriders obeyed. No arguing, no shouting, they almost seemed beaten.

But Megan knew better. She herself felt none of the old pride. Her new pride — a kind of dedication to the Alliance — was tempered with purpose.

All the Freeriders felt that purpose, too. She knew. They would follow her into the Elemental Chaos itself.

She just hoped that was not where they were heading.

“Here is the sequence of sigils you can use to perform a portal ritual to reach my court.”
—Cachlain, rewarding the representatives of The Order of the Black Feather for their service freeing him from the clutches of an Exarch of Tiamat

“Why should I be troubled? Have I not done everything I could to restore the Temple of Erathis?”

He could not remember if he had asked the Exarch these questions, but he was sure his work in the Nine Bells district had been noticed by his god. The whole place was in much better shape than when he arrived. The other temples were being restored as well.

But it seemed in his dream that Erathis wanted more from him. The Exarch seemed to think he was needed in Argent.

...By Fire Man and Rock Girl...

…As Crowd Favorites in Cachlain’s Arena.

In the process, they expose an Exarch of The Queen of Treachery.

Andrea Ravn told the others they needed to prepare for another battle before they got to the throne room. She went about healing the others even as they were carried or hussled up through the corridors which led back up to Cachlain’s headquarters.

They were all at full strength by the time they got to the great doors.

“A good thing, too,” she thought to herself.

As soon as they got there. Sovacles began making wild accusations, charging them with crimes Andrea was pretty sure the mind-mage himself had committed.

“The gracious king invited you into his palace, and you use trickery and deceit to compromise the security of his domain. You aid his great enemy, Sangwyr, and you plot against our brave, wise king! At every opportunity, you’ve allowed them into the king’s domain and led them in their assault! Now, submit to imprisonment and the king might spare your lives.”
—Sovacles,
adviser to the Stone-Skinned King

Cain told Cachlain they were clearly attacked by the assaults Sovacles was trying to blame on them.

But the seneschal seemed to be ordering the Stone-Skinned King around, not even hiding his power over Cachlain. As soon as Sovacles shouted “Attack,” the Fomorian king charged them.

Wishing she had Krasire’s powers of persuasion, Cain concentrated her attacks on Sovacles. The rest were doing the same, although Valna tried to intimidate the king, berating him for letting Sovacles order him around. That didn’t work, but Cain thought it came closer than might be expected.

The king hesitated a second, looking angrily at his advisor. Then he shook it off and renewed his attacks on Relvain. Sometimes he was able to slam her so hard he caught others in his attacks.

Cain decided to step back and take advantage of her reach attacks to get a shot at Sovacles without setting herself up for those slams.

She noticed Nox was using smaller bursts of fire than he used against the wolves, so he he could hit the seneschal without hitting the king.

Sovacles was hiding behind Cachlain’s stone armor and deflecting as many attacks as he could toward the king himself. This seemed to convince the king their entreaties of friendship were some kind of deception.

But Andrea was actually healing the king.

“Seems to help,” Cain thought to herself. “Sovacles is getting more and more obvious. Maybe that’s helping.”

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with! My queen has given me the power to destroy you easily! Tiamat will have all that you possess and more, and your blood is my gift to her! And I’m sure Cachlain’s replacement will be more amenable to our commands.”
—Sovacles,
revealed as an agent of Tiamat

Once Relvain Blackaxe had Cachlain’s attention — “I guess the only way to get it is to hit on the head with my axe” — she adopted a defensive posture. The giant Fomorian still was able to hit her sometimes, but at least he wasn’t attacking the other.

The others were trying to convince the Stone-Skinned King that Sovacles was not his friend, but they didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. When Nox put up what what seemed to Relvain to be a pretty good argument, she thought he was about to realize what was up.

When Cachlain shook that off and renewed his attacks, Relvain decided to take things into her own hands and tried the diplomatic approach. Just when that seemed to be working, the king looked at her and said, “Yer da one ’oo ’it me.”

She told the others they were just going to have to concentrate on killing Sovacles.

As the seneschal got more and more beat up, his ranting became more irrational. Just when it appears that the advisor’s threat is ended, his body evaporated and formed into a wispy green cloud.

The cloud began cackling about Tiamat’s power and Cachlain’s replacement, and Relvain knew the trickster had lost all control…

…and was revealed as a shapeshifter.

“Replacement?” shouted the Stone-Skinned King. He leaped toward his throne and gestured at the floor, which was made of some kind of crystal formed like stained glass. It disappeared and Relvain fell to the arena below.

She managed to keep her feet and saw the green cloud Sovacles had become float down on wispy wings.

“You have destroyed my human guise! Still, I have four more forms that can defeat you easily! Now you know you face Virizan, Exarch of Her Dark Majesty Tiamat! All in this room will take my secret to their graves!”
— Sovacles,
revealed as Virizan

Valna of the Moonstair heard a cheer from below, but he did not fall with the rest. He and Nox had spread out behind the throne itself to avoid Sovacles’s bursts of Bane Quills. The floor around the throne side had not disappeared when the strange king gestured at his crystalline floor.

Looking over the edge, Valna could see that four Eladrin gladiators had been fighting a Blackroot Treant. They had managed to chain it down with Cold Iron chains and now were acknowledging the crowd’s cheers.

He could tell the gladiators thought the crowd was cheering for them. “Foolish Feydark preeners,” he thought to himself. “Anyone can see the crowd is cheering because they paid for an ordinary arena fight. Now they get to see an Exarch of Tiamat, fighting for his life against true champions, capable of fighting on his level.”

“Cachlain won’t last long! Sangwyr marches, and the Fomorian weakling’s forces can’t stop him alone. Tiamat covets this domain and it will be hers, and Sangwyr will be a perfect puppet upon the throne.”
— Virizan,
Exarch of Tiamat

Nox Rhasgar heard a new chant go up from the crowd below. Something about a dragon.

The insubstantial nature of Virizan’s Venom-Wisp form made it hard for Nox to do as much fire damage as he would have liked. But when his friends below surrounded the Venom Wisp, it was forced to change into a swarm of snakes.

Only a few of the crowd seemed to be taking up the chant about the dragon, but one of the gladiators heard it. He was now leading the chant and encouraging the rest of the crowd to join it.

“I can see that at least that one realizes they are not cheering for him,” Nox noticed. “I guess all Feydark Eladrin are not so arrogant as to think everything is about them.”

Now that the crowd was organized, he could make out the words:

“Dragon-Pinner. Dragon-Pinner. Dragon-Pinner….”

“I guess Relvain is better known around here than I thought.”

The crowd was reacting to his blasts as well. The party members who had fallen were on their feet and attacking Virizan with their weapons. Whenever they surrounded the Shapeshifter, he would turn into a swarm of snakes and it would become hard for them to hit the teeming mass.

Their blades often struck between the snakes, doing less damage than they might. But his blast attacks left no room for the snakes to squirm to. They seemed to do extra damage as the snakes got in each other’s way.

Every time this happened, the crowd seemed to cheer, only to fade into disappointment.

“I guess it’s because they cannot see me up here.”

The gladiators — ever in tune with the crowd’s mood — made the same guess they formed themselves into a kind of ladder to let Nox and Valna climb down.

Remembering nothing of the philosophical debate before they fell through the floor, Grim was impressed with the way the crowd was reacting to the Dragonborn Sorcerer’s fire attacks. When Nox killed off the swarm form, they changed their chant.

“Fire Man. Fire Man. Fire Man….”

When the Snake-Swarm form died, Virizan tried to alternate between his Venom-Wisp form and the guise of a human creature with scaled skin. In this guise, he produced his staff of office, now twisted and warped into the image of a hooded serpent.

But the Venom-Wisp soon died as well, forcing Virizan to try another form, transforming into an enormous, coiled serpent with a humanoid face. A row of green quills ran down his spine, and longer spines jutted out from the tip of his muscular tail.

This form died quickly, and the Shapeshifter had to stay in the Snaketongue form for the rest of the battle.

As the gladiators joined the winning side — Grim could see they had keen sense of whom the crowd was favoring — Virizan began to try to edge him closer to the chained tree.

The green-scaled creature had the ability to send out Emerald Coils which slid them towards the undead Blackroot Treant.

“I have no illusions that I am the strongest of Tiamat’s Exarchs. Even if you defeat me, you can’t stop us all!”
— Virizan,
Exarch of the Queen of Treachery.

“The tree has reach,” Andrea Ravn warned the others. “I think its branches can attack you if you’re with 15 feet of its trunk.”

Then she herself was grabbed by roots which emerged from the ground around her…20 feet from the trunk.

“And its roots can reach even farther!”

She could tell Virizan was close to death, but she could not reach him with her weapon. So Andrea picked up a rock and threw it at the green-scaled form he had taken.

The rock didn’t do much damage, but it was enough to kill the Exarch. The crowd started a new chant.

“Rock Girl. Rock Girl. Rock Girl…”

Freed from the spells Virizan was casting on him, Cachlain sent his guards down to bring the heroes up to his throne room. As they passed the cages where the Quicklings had released the arena beasts, Andrea noticed a rack with weapons arrayed for use by the arena fighters.

One of the weapons glowed with a red magickal power.

A Cyclops guard noticed her interest in the weapon.

“Rock Girl likes sickle?” he asked her. “I take sickle to Stone-Skinned King. Maybe he make sickle present to Rock Girl for winning in the arena.”

She was pretty sure it was no ordinary sickle. So she kept her mouth shut.

“My stupid guards!” shouted Cachlain when the guard told him where they had found the weapon. “This no sickle. This is Talenta Sharrash. Made only beneath the Dark Sun. Magic item of great power. I collect such items, but my guards had this sitting in stupid weapon rack.”

Then he turned to Andrea Ravn. “Guard says you see this magic item in rack, after you kill Virizan. Cachlain not know Sovacles really Virizan. Not know Sovacles work for Tiamat. Not know Queen of Treachery want help Sangwyr take Stone-Skinned King’s domain from Cachlain.”

After he freed Talyrin, she told him what she had learned from Valna while they were both prisoners in the secret prison. Convinced by this that Sangwyr was the true enemy, Cachlain turned to his guards.

“Prepare my armies to march. We must meet Sangwyr on the battlefield. The debt I owe those who freed cannot be fully repaid.” Striding into his personal quarters, he emerged with two more magic items from his collection.

He gave Andrea the Talenta Sharrash, which looks like a sickle on the end of a long pole.

Andrea was sure she heard the Sharrash growl when he handed it to her.

“That’s how you’ll know it is hungry,” he said, raising a stone eyebrow. “For blood.”

Then he handed her a fire-scorched wooden staff with sharp teeth running along its entire length. As a Dragonborn, she could feel its draconic power.

Finally, he bestowed a large shield on Relvain. “For the Dragonpinner.” This shield was emblazoned with an arm raised to make a defiant fist.

From the reluctance in the way the dwarf laid down her old shield, Andrea knew she might have a hard time convincing the shield maiden to use the new one in battle.

“I better take a look at its magic. Maybe it will be better than the old one.”

...and Sovacles Tries to Blame...

…Our Heroes.

When the ghost was done teaching Andrea to read her Harrow Deck, Shade wondered if she and Krasire could get information out of the Githyanki assassin tortured by Cachlain’s guards. They heard she had erased her own mind and reduced herself to an idiot.

Shade knew Krasire had powers which could penetrate minds. Perhaps the Shardmind could psychically extract knowledge Arzoa didn’t even know she had.

So they decided to sneak down to the pens where she was being held. The animals were kept their, waiting their turn in the arena. For a disabled Githyanki, the cages sufficed as a kind of jail.

“And that keeps her away from the Winter-Court diplomats housed in the secret prison with Talyrin,” she told herself.

She spotted some Quicklings releasing the arena beasts from their cages and rushed in to grab the Quicklings before too many were released. But the Quicklings were too quick for them. No sooner than they had relocked a cage but the Quicklings had it unlocked again…

…or the beast was free.

Once a Chimera, three Winter Wolves, and a Thunderfury Boar were released, the Quicklings made a run for it, leaping into the audience watching an arena fight.

Chasing after the Quicklings just got them trapped between the freed beasts and the pit which surrounded the arena.

“I will open one of the cages,” Krasire told Valna. “Then you lure the Boar in by getting it to charge you.”

By the time Nox Rhasgar got there, Krasire and Shadowfox were already hurting. Nox was glad Andrea Ravn was such a good healer. That left the sorcerer to do what he did best.

“Lay down lots of blasts of fire damage.”

The Winter Wolves who were harrying the Revenant and the Shardmind got the blasts at first. Nox tried to include the Chimera and the Thunderfury Boar whenever he could. But they were both so big they could not really mingle with the wolves.

The Chimera looked frustrated by its size as well. Once the wolves were cleared out, it was finally able to attack two targets at once. Then Nox could see why it was frustrated.

“It has three heads. It would be able to attack three targets at once if it weren’t trapped in this narrow space between the cages.”

“I have a better idea,” Valna told Krasire. “You open the cage and I will drive it into the cage with my Precise Shot arrows.” The plan failed because his arrows killed the big pig before it was driven into the cage. “I guess all that damage Shadowfox was concentrating on the Boar really weakened it.”

Andrea Ravn had to admit she was impressed with Nox’s performance. “I bet you and I and Relvain could take on anything,” she told the sorcerer. But even Shadowfox was putting out some major damage on the Chimera.

“Very concentrated damage.”

Once the Chimera realized it was bloodied, it decided to take its chance on freedom and flew out through the arena. Andrea realized the Stone-Skinned King would see it escape.

Guards were sure to be sent to investigate.

Sure enough. When the guards showed up, it looked like Andrea and her friends had let the animals loose. So the guards took them upstairs toward the throne room.

Andrea realized this was their last chance to recuperate, so she stalled and healed the rest of the party while they made their way upstairs.

As soon as they were inside the throne room, Sovacles commanded the doors to close, and they slammed closed behind Andrea.

The advisor, clearly angered, yelled, “The gracious king invited you into his palace, and you use trickery and deceit to compromise the security of his domain. You aid his great enemy, Sangwyr, and you plot against our brave, wise king! At every opportunity, you’ve allowed them into the king’s domain and led them in their assault! Now, submit to imprisonment and the king might spare your lives.”

...Looking to Transport Hostages...

…But the Hostages Show Up Uncaptured…

…and take out the agents.

Nox Rhasgar was surprised when the cyclops locked herself back into the cell where she was being held prisoner. The elf from the ambassador’s cell explained that Talyrin was once the Stone-Skinned King’s closest advisor. Apparently she was supplanted by Sovacles when the bald seneschal convinced Cachlain she was plotted against him.

The ambassadors agreed that it would look less suspicious if they remained in their secret prison with the cyclops sage. Talyrin told Nox that Sovacles was a relative newcomer to the Stone-Skinned King’s court. Apparently he arrived about three months ago and quickly wormed his way into Cachlain’s good graces.

She agreed with Shadowfox when the Assassin told her of their suspicions that Sovacles was using mental powers to influence the king.

“It’s the only way he could have turned Cachlain against me,” she told them. “This is the first of the Stone-Skinned King’s advisors to wield magic openly. He was always afraid of the power of magick. That’s why he only chose sages and powerful warriors as advisors in the past.” Looking worried, she said, “The king has changed. Sovacles’ magick is the only reason I can think of.”

As they went back towards their rooms, Nox heard noises up ahead. Rushing to the quarters where ambassadors in good standing were housed, he found the floor exploding upward as a Bullette, scarred by some horrible torture, came up out of the depths. As he and Relvain hurried ahead to fight the intruders who were pouring from the hole left by the Bullette, Nox saw Shadowfox running back to get the elf out of the secret prison.

“That guy had a really nice bow,” he thought to himself. “But I better turn myself into a ball of fire.”

Relvain Blackaxe had never seen Nox take the form of an insubstantial ball of fire before, but she was glad to see it happen.

The attackers seemed to be led by a Drider Fanglord. Besides the Scarred Bullette, she saw a few Drow Underlings, and a pair of Inferno Bats. The bats didn’t to like the fact that they couldn’t seem to hurt Nox now that he had turned himself into an elemental ball of fire.

Once Grim got the keys from Talyrin and freed Valna, she ran back to the banquet hall to get back to the invaders in their rooms. But the invaders — two inferno bats — intercepted her in the banquet hall.

So Grim made her stand there, piling her shrouds on the fiery creatures, and doing as much damage as she could. Once Valna got his bow from storage and returned, the Elf joined the fight.

Grim had to admit Valna did a better job at pinning the bats down, but they were able to tag-team them and finish them off.

A good thing, too. Because once Nox and Relvain killed the Bullette and drove the Drider off, Relvain insisted on following the Drider down the hole.

A Githyanki Assassin Interrupts...

…The Attempt to Free Elven Ambassadors…

…held in Cachlain’s secret prison.

Shadowfox told Krasire what was behind the secret door in the antechamber: a secret prison.

There she had found the missing diplomats. They told her they had been imprisoned by Cachlain at the word of Sovacles. Also in the secret prison: a former advisor to the Stone-Skinned King and a gnome named Legbreaker.

Krasire decided to take Nox to free the ambassadors, but Shadowfox insisted on exploring further. So he invited Bram Ironfell as well.

They found the lock too hard to pick, so they decided to try to break the cell door. No sooner than they started beating on it, though, and they were attacked by a Githyanki assassin and her Purplespawn Nightmares.

It didn’t take long for these creatures to gain the upper hand. They were quick and hard to hit.

Shade found a massive cavern, surrounded by a 10-foot-wide chasm below the king’s throne room. An arena was built on the vast, flat pillar of bloodstained purple crystal. She also found animal pens nearby. After scouting the area for a while, she heard someone being brought downstairs. “Another fighter for the king’s pleasure” was all she could guess.

it felt to Nox Rhasgar like he was the only one doing damage to these creatures. He was glad he could hit them — sometimes — but they had blooded all of them before he really got going.

And they were all making a lot of noise. The prisoners — except the gnome — were helping. But even the attempt to to open the prison cell had made a lot of noise.

Sure enough, before they had even bloodied the nightmare, the Stone-Skinned King’s guards showed up and yelled, “What’s the meaning of this?”

Fortunately, Bram Ironfell — who seemed to be a diplomat who used to work for the Githyanki — was a quick thinker.

He shouted, “We caught this Githyanki — she claims her name is Arzoa — trying to free these elves.” Then he ordered Nox to seize Arzoa.

Nox picked up on the ploy — shifting the blame for the jailbreak attempt to the assassin — and attacked her. He was even able to help the guards take Arzoa up to the throne room.

Sovacles seemed nonplussed by the whole affair. So surprised that he let the king make up his own mind what to do with the trespasser. Cachlain threw them into the dungeons, obviously anxious to use the Purplespawn in his arena.

...with Invitations Sent...

…by the Githyanki.

“Did you think to poison a dwarf with your sleeping draughts?” she mused, as Droeth turned into an Oni. “And Krasire here doesn’t even have a mouth. How did you imagine he might succumb to your poison?”

Then the guards attending the Githyanki ambassador transformed as well. Relvain could see from the look on his face — as he sniffed at his food — that he had never known his guards were Rakshasa: a race usually allied with the pirates of the Astral Plane, the Githyanki.

Bram Ironfell knew the food was poisoned as soon as he tasted it. He also knew something more terrifiying: The Githyanki had betrayed him. Droeth transformed into an Oni Spiritmaster, enough to suggest the Githyanki were behind the poison by itself. When his own guard transformed into Rakshasa Warriors, he knew Emperor Zetch’r’r was behind it. The Githyanki overlord had enlisted Bram in his plan to bring war and conquest across the planes. “What manner of betrayal is this?” he demanded. But the Oni only laughed about how slow his diplomacy was proceeding.

Krasire decided to show the Spiritmaster just how powerful diplomacy could be: He used his Keys to the City power to convince Bram Ironfell that being an ambassador to an emperor who would poison his own diplomats was not a worthy title.

He suspected Bram might have long harbored doubts about working with the Githyanki. Apparently the Emperor Zetch’r’r harbored doubts of his own. Krasire knew what a prize the Seed of Winter might be. And the portals the emperor sought to use in the domain of Cachlain were valuable as well.

With the Oni Spiritmaster laughing in Bram’s face, it probably wouldn’t have taken much to convince the ambassador to renounce his post and fight on behalf of the Alliance…

…even knowing the Alliance itself might never forgive his treason.

But the Masked Lord — Krasire — offered the dwarf the Keys to the City of Waterdeep anyway.

And that sealed the deal.

Then he turned to wake up Shadowfox.

Who was still snoring in his salad.

Belinda still hadn’t told her parents about Jerath’s — very public — offer. Asking her to star in his next production might be just what they wanted: a way to keep her close to Sayre and away from the action. Then again, maybe they would forbid it. Theatrical people had a bad reputation in some places — not Sayre, of course. They might think it inappropriate for a Lord Warden’s daughter. Belinda was not sure which reaction would make her madder.

All Cain could remember was the Githyanki ambassador accusing the Droeth of betrayal — Droeth? the laconic Cyclops had transformed into a Oni of some sort before the accusations started flying.

Now Krasire was slapping her, and the banquet of ambassadors had erupted into a brawl…

…with the Githyanki ambassador some how on their side.

“This is my kind of dinner party,” she thought as she saw four Howling Spirits appear behind the Oni.

They took down the Oni — a Spiritmaster, apparently — first. The Oni consumed its Howling Spirits even faster than they were able to kill them. “Doesn’t pay to be the minion of an evil master,” she thought.

After that they concentrated on the Rakshasa and took them down one at a time. Cain noticed Relvain was doing a good job of convincing all of the Githyanki agents to attack her. And fending off those attacks most of the time.

“Good to have a talented tank.”

Searching the bodies they found 300 platinum pieces and a Circlet of the Resolute Mind, which left Krasire facing the difficult choice as to which of his two headpieces he should wear.

...A Crazy King Meets a Cray-Cray Diplomat...

…To the Frustration of Sovacles…

…and of a certain shieldmaiden.

Relvain Dragonpinner was trying to come up with some way to use her fighting skills to impress The Stone-Skinned King in the gladiatorial arena. But Sovacles — obviously a mind-mage controlling the king somehow — kept frustrating her efforts…

…to say nothing of the revenant-assassin.

Shadowfox kept doing things which seemed totally inappropriate to Relvain. Just things one doesn’t do in situations. Like eating a coin. Or jumping into an acrobatic routine.

And yet these demented actions seemed to impress the king more than the rational alternatives the Dragonpinner was offering.

First, when the king appeared distracted by the gladiatorial combat in the arena below, the assassin got his attention by executing acrobatic stunts. Soon the king was clapping and Sovacles was sulking.

Then Shadowfox tried to intimidate Cachlain.

Sovacles blustered, “Threats will not work against the king.”

But Relvain could see the king was shaken. “Perhaps his paranoia makes him susceptible to intimidation.”

Then Shadowfox did something that really got Relvain’s goat. She convinced Krasire to give the Seed of Winter to the king.

“You didn’t even get anything in return,” she fumed. But the king seemed genuinely impressed with the gift. “Even though he thought it was his in the first place. And how are we going to get it back to give to the Daughter of the Frostwhite Forest?”

Bluffing about the danger posed to the king by the Githyanki, Relvain finally began to make some headway. “I guess I was right about his paranoia.” After a failed atttempt at diplomacy by Shadowfox, she bluffed again with even more success at provoking the paranoia in the king’s mind.

Cachlain’s interest returned to the gladiators — Relvain had been unsuccessful in provoking Sovacles to a duel in the arena, but there was still fighting going on down there. So she tried to do with athletic swings of her axe what she had seen Shadowfox do earlier with his acrobatics.

Unfortunately, she dropped the axe and the remained intent on the gladiators below.

Sovacles said, “The king has had enough of your chatter. Leave the court at once.”

The king did not seem to be paying attention, but offered no disagreement. As they were leaving, they saw Bram Ironfell — an old friend of Storm Johnson — go in and arrange for them to be able to stay in the ambassador’s quarters.

During these sessions where Sovacles came down to her cell complaining, Talryn always remembered the visions she had of her betrayal. In those visions, it always seemed that Delis Erinthal was the only one who could save her. Now the betrayal was real. And somehow the visions seemed more real as well. Today Sovacles was boasting about some audience with the king, about how he had foiled some diplomats who seemed to be set on upsetting the agreement with the Githyanki.

Trinity Shadowfox had plenty of time to get to know Bram Ironfell after the dwarf arranged for them to stay. Bram entertained them with tales of closing the gates to the Elemental Chaos.

When talked turned to his family, though, Bram became bitter. His family’s decision to exile him from their estates really grated on him. Though he was a hero in Overlook, his family’s betrayal — over him doing the right thing — convinced him that the Alliance would never stop the Githyanki.

So he had joined them.

Indeed, he was acting as the Githyanki ambassador to Cachlain’s court. He had already procured the right of the Githyanki to use the portals to pass through the Stone-Skinned King’s domain.

Bram invited them to a formal dinner later and Cain accepted. At the dinner, they met other ambassadors they had seen around the court:

Adrianna Baelsblood, haughty Tiefling, whose slaving business works with Cachlain’s;

Troke, a Satyr of the Circle of Crownstone; and

Droeth, a laconic Cyclops who works for a relative of Cachlain named Uluh-couram.

The food was poison with some kind of sleeping draught. As he slipped into unconsciousness, Cain saw Droeth transform into an Oni Spiritmaster.

“Uh-oh,” she thought as Bram’s guards turned into Rakshasas. Bram seemed as surprised at this as she was.

“I hope one of the dwarves can stay awake,” was her last thought as her face fell into her plate.

...Into the Court of Cachain...

…Shadowfox Discovers Some Disturbing Secrets…

…about her past.

Grim was still in her full battle mode when the general came over to thank her.

“I see now why the Lady Inzira has chosen you to represent us to Cachlain’s court. Not only do your crude manners make a better fit, but you obviously can defend yourself should the diplomacy turn to— other means.” He led Shadowfox back to his tent while the rest recovered. “You have probably saved my life today. And for this you must be rewarded.”

General Goldtemple gave Grim a chest filled with gold pieces and a bag of gems.

After contemplating whether the act would offend Druemmeth, Grim ate one of the gold pieces while the Eladrin explained that he would lead them to the area where most of the entrances to the Stone-Skinned King’s court could be found.

“Your combat skills might see you through,” he explained, telling them the previous emissaries sent by the Daughter of the Frostwhite Forest had never returned.

“I fear they may no longer be alive,” he admitted. “Please try to find them. And get them released, if you can.”

“In this war, we face not only mortal danger, but a more sinister attack—an assault against our hearts and minds. The githyanki threaten to drive us to defeat through neglect and treachery. Neglect as we refuse to take the bold steps we must to survive, and treachery as our enemies lead astray those who could be our allies, and mobilize them against us.”
—Amyria,
appealing to the Coalition

Shade knew her medallion could be used to find the patrols which Druemmeth had warned her about. She had not yet decided whether she should approach the Stone-Skinned King’s guards openly or try to sneak past them with her stealth.

Shade Shadowfox was particularly proud of her stealth skills.

Once they picked a hole and entered the underground caves which led to Cachlain’s court, she found a maze. Labyrinthine caves led every which way. So she tried the medallion, which was able to pinpoint nearby life forms. Unfortunately, it pointed almost straight down. She was pretty sure it pointed at the court itself, but it didn’t tell her much about which tunnel to choose.

“I guess I’ll just have to pick the one that leads most surely downward,” she told herself. “I know the medallion will be ready to use again in a few minutes.”

Before the trinket had a chance to recharge, Shade heard voices. The words sounded like Cyclops-accented Giantish and Shadowfox was glad she heard them before they heard all the noise her companions were making.

“Especially that dwarf.”

So she decided that diplomacy was the better part of stealth and approached them openly. When she asked for directions to the Court of the Stone-Skinned King, they took the party there straightaway.

“One might even think they believe they have arrested us,” she thought to herself.

But she said nothing aloud.

“I am saddened by the loss of Lyrindel,” High Lady Ordalf told Avenglen. “She was on an important mission for us. Perhaps the more mundane — and practical — resources of the Sword Coast will be able to help. Or perhaps the gods themselves are becoming involved.”

The walls were hewn from purple crystal and supported in places with beautifully forged iron plates. The giant doors were unlocked or non-existent in most places.

As she descended into the tunnels, the air becomes cold and stagnant.

The purple crystal that formed the walls glowed faintly as they approached the court itself. Strange, vibrantly colored mosses and fungi carpeted the floors and walls, though the living quarters and common areas she passed through were scoured clean of these growths.

Slaves and their Cyclops overseers walked the halls, and she began to see a wider variety of fey as she moved closer to the heart of Cachlain’s holdings.

As she moved through the foyer into the main hall, she saw a faint light showing through purple-crystal wall on her left. In its light, she could clearly see the outline of a door.

“Secrets,” she thought.

A massive throne of purple crystal stood on the far side of the throne room. Cachlain sat there, looking them over with his grotesque eyes.

Like other Fomorians, his body was deformed, and his skin purple and covered in warts. Plates of stone are bonded to his flesh. They look almost like armor and are carved with elaborate designs.

Cain had been expecting the armor, but not the carving and inlays.

Next to the throne she saw a smaller seat, and when they entered, a human rose from this smaller chair — a slight, bald man, and carrying a staff of office. His eyes dart among them as he prepared to speak.

The most unique feature of this room is the floor. Giant panes of glass—or maybe smooth crystal—formed a window that looked down on an arena far below. She could see gladiators battling there, and she caught the king sneaking glances at the fight.

The advisor introduces himself as Sovacles, and stepped forward to ask them, “Why do you come here? And what makes you think the great king cares what you have to say?”

Noticing a faint magickal glow around the king’s head, Cain was sure the advisor was exerting some kind of arcane coercion on the king’s mind. This was born out by Cachlain’s subsequent behavior: Whenever Sovacles made a suggestion, the king was quick to adopt the same line of thinking.

Both Sovacles and Cachlain seemed interested when she explained the recent history of the Seed of Winter — the king seemed to barely remember why he had loaned it to a dragon.

After Cain entertained the king with a display of acrobatics, she began to see they would have to work together to accomplish anything during this audience: Whenever the king became distracted, someone would have to get his attention back.

As Cachlain clapped and praised her acrobatic skills — suggesting she might be a good gladiator — Cain realized the king was likely to be impressed by displays of athletics and acrobatics prowess. She surmised that he might take those he perceives as powerful warriors more seriously.

Heroes Save General Goldtemple...

…from Sangwyr’s Cronies

Relvain the Dragonpinner woke in some kind of camp. She was being tended by Eladrin healers. Other tended her companions, but she seemed to be getting the better treatment.

She remembered losing their fight with Pyradan. Not how she got to this camp.

Seemed to be some kind of battle camp. Arrows and spears were stacked nearby.

A tall, muscular Eladrin with long, dark brown hair confirmed this by his demeanor. Adorned in mithral chainmail and wearing a longsword, he’s clearly prepared for battle. He introduced himself to Relvan as Druemmeth Goldtemple. True to his name, he had streaks of gold in the long brown hair above his temples.

He asked her about the war against the Githyanki.

When Relvain explained who they were and their relationship to the heroes in that war, he apologized for sending the Firblogs after them. “I would have approached you more diplomatically had I known who you were.”

He hadn’t heard about the siege of Nefelus, so Krasire joined in to help fill him in on the details of that adventure. General Goldtemple was interested in the Seed of Winter. “I must converse with Inzira about this,” he told them as he headed for his tent. “My ruler will want to know all about this.”

When he returned, he told them, “Inzira seeks a temporary alliance with the Stone-Skinned King. It’s best if she speaks with you.”

He invited them into his battle tent and then removed a mithral medal from his chest and pinned it to the wall of the tent. Ice spread from the medal, crystallizing across a large surface, and forming the image of a female Eladrin’s face.

With long white hair and piercing, icy blue eyes, her presence seemed cold and unfeeling to Relvain. Her eyes studied the shieldmaiden as she spoke:

“The Seed of Winter belongs to me, not to you and certainly not to the Stone-Skinned King. It was a gift from Koliada to me when I was a mere child, and I have no intention of parting with it."

Her eyes turned toward her general, "However, Druemmeth has convinced me that the Fomorian and I must work together to foil the plots of Sangwyr. Use the Seed of Winter for the time being, as a tool to make a way into the King’s court. I’ll be expecting you to return it when you’re finished.

Turning back to Relvain, she said, “It’s convenient that our interests align, so you’ll be my messengers. Tell the Fomorian I do not like him, and I know he does not like me. However, Sangwyr utterly hates both of us, and we must stop his stupid uprising.”

Pointedly hinting that he thought Inzira should be sending him instead of them, Goldtemple offered to take Relvain and her companions to a place near Cachlain’s palace.

“She has sent other emissaries before you, and they have not returned. Find them if you can and have them released.” The general’s face turned grim. “Assuming they are still alive.”

Rumors coming in from the “traveling” company (currently ensconced firmly in the very permanent University Theater in Sayre) of Jerath the “Bard” suggest that the Drow’s perversity may not be limited to stealing the words of Dwarven mastersingers.
— from a handbill Murrik Ironfell was seen passing out in front of The Orb Theatre.

Shade wondered if the dream about being a praying mantis was some kind of clue as to her previous life. Seemed right somehow, but the idea she was once a mantis seemed improbable.

“Contemplating the improbable will have to wait,” she told herself. Relvain and Krasire were already deep in diplomatic negotiations with some Eladrin general. “I wonder if he knows the high-elf lady from my dream.”

The diplomacy wasn’t even over before Shade heard the sounds of battle from outside the general’s tent. Glancing outside, she saw Eladrin bodies peppered with arrows. Others seemed to have been flayed with hundreds of tiny cuts.

The Eladrin dowsed the glowing silver sigil which was providing the light in his tent. “Good,” she thought. Shadowfox did not like the idea of her own shadow — cast on the walls of tent — giving away her position to her enemies. “Strange, though, how it almost looked like a mantis.”

Rushing outside, Shade was able to find cover in some rocks. “Hard to tell who was firing the arrows.” The only archers she could see appeared to be Eladrin. Some elderly women lurked in the trees, but they didn’t look like Eladrin. Krasire shouted out that they might be witches, and Shade was convinced they had some kind of affinity to shadow.

Some of the Eladrin were armed with swords — Winter Blades, Shade seemed to recall they were known as…

But how could she, a member of the High Lady’s Summer Court…

“That was from the dream,” she thought. “The lady in the dream where I was a mantis.”

Shaking off the thoughts, she noticed the Eladrin with the swords seemed to be taking the worst of it. Those already dead were all armed with swords. Those still standing seemed to be the targets of whoever was shooting at them. She turned to one of the Eladrin archers to tell her to fire back, when it turned into a Rakshasa and fired an arrow at the general.

And one at Shade.

Meanwhile, a troll covered in vine had crashed into the back of the general’s tent and attacked those inside with a Thorny Burst. Krasire was able to immobilze the troll and one of the old women with his empowered Force Grasp. That enabled the rest of the group to get out of the tangle of brambles left behind by the troll’s attack.

“The archers are shapeshifters,” she cried and Relvain rallied the heroes to concentrate their fire on one of Sangwyr’s Night Hags — that was the form the old women shifted into when they wanted to do damage.

Seed of Winter cast aside some of its doubts. Now that the Psion had promised to return it to Inzira once the charade with the Stone-Skinned King was through, the Seed didn’t have to worry whether it had given its Concordance too easily. Still, Krasire did seem to be learning a little bit about dominating a battlefield. At least against these assassins.

Krasire Mirrorsmasher was finally getting the hang of his Precise MInd power. He just had to wait until one of his augmented powers hit, then follow it up with an unaugmented psionic powers. He realized that even an unaugmented power could do a lot if he picked the right one.

“And if it has a greater chance of working.”

Krasire used his augmented Force Grasp again to finish off the first Night Hag and start on the troll — “Twice as many targets gives me twice the chance of hitting” — so Revain began shouting they had to concentrate their fire on the troll.

Relvain was particularly worried about the Vinespeaker Troll as it appeared to be able to regenerate itself. Indeed, once they bloodied it, it healed itself completely and grew more ferocious. They had to kill it with a burning stake from the fire to prevent it from coming back to life. Once they burned the troll’s corpse, they turned to the other assassins.

It became clear Sangwyr’s minions were really after the general. The Rakshasa were targeting at least one of their shots at him every time they turned into their fighting form.

After the assassination attempt, General Goldtemple urged them to leave for the court of Cachlain at once.

Pyradan Scores a TKO

The two Portal Dogs seemed to Krasire to be doing a better job of controlling the battlefield than he was.

They teleported Relvain into the cave, but they failed when they tried the same tactic on Shadowfox and Krasire himself. This failure was almost worse than success might have been, isolating Relvain from their help.

Sure, it allowed him to keep his hippogriff, Xerxes, in the fight. But Relvain was isolated from all help. Still the Dwarven Defender seemed to be holding her own, tanking the Bloodbear inside.

But Pyradan and his dogs were able to harry them relentlessly outside the cave.

When he worked his way closer to the mouth of the cave he used his full mental powers to Force Grasp both Pyradan and the Bloodbear. Not only did this immobilize them inflicted so much damage — more than Krasire had ever dealt in a single attack — he tried it again before they could react. Seemed like a waste of a good immobilize, but it sure did a lot of damage.

Then the dogs were able to knock him out.

“Ah, the sweet surcease of consciousness,” he thought as he slumped to the ground.

Andrea Ravn remembered another moment from her dream: Zellara telling her about being trapped in the Harrow Deck. She could not get out of it until she taught another to use it. The woman’s ghost was caught in the fortune-telling deck which had been so much a part of her life.

Trinity Shadowfox was glad to see Xerxes bring his rider back to the land of the living, but the Shardmind did not seem to have his heart in the fight. Using her Ghost on the Rooftops power, she was able to evade the dogs for a while. Neither she nor Krasire ever really got inside the cave to help Relvain, who had added Bloodbear-pinning to her repertoire.

Trinity knew it wouldn’t be long before both she and Krasire would both be unconscious at the same time and she would not be able to heal the Shardmind.

“I’m glad this is not a fight to the death,” she thought. “And Xerxes can probably keep us both alive.”

“Precise Mind,” The Seed of Winter whispered. “Precissssse Mind.” But the Shardmind did not seem to want to use its Precise Mind. Still, the Seed persisted, “True domination is possible only through the Precise Mind.”

Relvain the Dragonpinner was almost sorry when she finally bloodied the Bloodbear. At first it was just a Firbolg in a bearskin. When she bloodied it, however, it turned into a giant bear-humanoid hybrid which seemed to have healed all its wounds.

Thinking it was critical to bloody it again — “I’ll bet it turns back into a Firbolg” — she threw everything she had into her attacks on the werebear, which seemed to have some kind of power of regeneration.

Even though this meant she had to ignore Pyradan and his dogs, she was able to pile on the damage faster than the Bloodbear could regenerate. The dogs were unable to get through her defenses much, but Pyradan and the werebear finally managed to wear her down.

She awoke on a makeshift altar in the war-camp of an Eladrin noble who seemed to have two streaks of gold in his hair just above his ears. He was directing his healers to bring Relvain and her companions — lying on the ground nearby — back to consciousness.

In the Feywilde

Entertaining the Skyshaper

It quickly became apparent the shadows were not just for effect. Two 12-foot humanoid hunters quickly moved to attack. Shadowfox knew that Firbolgs like shadow almost as much as she did.

“And so do those Shadow Snakes I see hiding in the shadows.”

A rumbling voice thundered through the sky. “You fight in my demesne, do you? Fine, then. Entertain me.” She quickly realized this must be the Skyshaper, the archfey Caliandra told her about.

While the Firbolgs started raining Moonfire down on them — to the delight of the Skyshaper — Grim was not convinced they were fighting all out. “Probably just testing us out,” she decided. “What are those war picks for?”

She soon found out. When they hit two different creatures with their picks in one turn, the Ghostravens could blind one of them.

Then she got a message from Krasire. Using his arcane lore, the Shardmind had figured out that the Skyshaper could be influenced by either acrobatics or flattery. “I can do both of those,” she shot back to him.

Sure enough, as soon as she started complimenting the archfey, the sky brightened slightly. This didn’t help Grim much, but she was sure it helped her allies.

And the enemies definitely didn’t like it.

Andrea Ravn remembered this dream. She’d had it before. On a mission to save some kids from a guy named Lamm. Only in this dream she wasn’t a Dragonborn. She was human. She had always failed before. This time she spotted the gnome hiding among the children before he could stab her. Andrea convinced the kids — known as Lamm’s Lambs — to turn on their oppressors. They her where Lamm was hiding, and went down and killed him. She awoke with a sense of success she hadn’t felt in days. And four trophies: a gruesome hatbox, a Harrow Deck (which probably belonged to the ghost who sent her after Lamm), a teak cigar box containing a broach with a broken clasp; and a knife inscribed “for a father’s inspiration.”

Andrea found magic on the Harrow Deck and on the broach and resolved to find out what they did. The Harrow Deck was probably for divination, but the broach could be useless until she got it repaired.

In this world or in the other.

She went to Amyria, who was recently elected to take Lord Torrance’s place leading the Coalition. The deva told her the Order of the Black Feather had been selected to take care of an important mission. She thought Andrea’s skills in that arena might be singularly useful.

So Andrea decided to try to catch up with them. She still thought of herself as more of a Golden-Scales kind of Dragonborn. But Amyria told her that Ragnar the Mighty was going along. Andrea couldn’t think of anybody as Golden Scales as Ragnar.

She found the trail of the other members of The Order of the Black Feather at the ruins of Rhest and almost caught up to them before they disappeared through a portal.

After Shadowfox’s compliments had such an impact on the ruler of this strange realm — the guy they were hoping convince to help them get to the Stone-Skinned King’s court — Krasire tried following his own advice. The sky brightened as the Skyshaper was again taken in by the flattery.

Then Shadowfox tried a different strategy: Using her acrobatics to leap to the top of one of the standing stones which surrounded them, she somersaulted out of reach of the snakes which kept shifting between them.

“Marvelous!” shouted the booming voice. And the sky brightened further.

When Krasire delivered his final compliment, Andrea saw the sun come out and heard yet another roar of pleasure from the Skyshaper.

The Shadow Snakes were not doing well under the sun’s rays. Nor were the strange creatures wearing the raven masks. Andrea could almost see smoke rising from their shadowy hides.

Except the smoke seemed to a sunshine sparkle to it.

“Like this guy likes to show off his control-of-the-sun-and-moon powers,” Andrea decided. “Almost as much as he likes flattery.”

In the heat of battle, Krasire could hear the voice of the Seed of Winter in his head, "To control is to dominate. Domination is control. See: You are now the controller. You slowed the Ghostraven with your Force Grasp. it can even immobilize, but sometimes slow is all you need. It could not get away while it was phasing, so your comrades could concentrate their damage on that one. Elimination in detail: That is what a controller can do. Just as your Kinetic Wave can push your enemies into traps laid by your allies. Just as your Betrayal can shift or slide your opponents into bunches. To control is to know just what your allies need. To dominate the battlefield is to be aware of everything on the battlefield and move the pieces where you want them to be.

When one of the snakes tried to climb the pillar where Shadowfox was acrobatically dancing out of its reach, Relvain was able to convince the others to concentrate their fire on that one. Once it was dead, they did the same to the other.

When they turned to the Ghostravens, she did not like the way the battle turned. The Firbolgs could no longer achieve true invisibility in the bright sun, but they were alternating their attacks in such a way that only one was available to attack each turn.

But Krasire finally saved the day by slowing one when it was not in a tree.

“The kid’s actually getting good,” Relvain told herself. The Dragonpinner had been frustrated as the Ghostravens kept phasing out and flying away. It prevented her from concentrating the damage on one of the two remaining opponents.

“I guess once you’ve pinned a dragon, it’s going to be frustrating to be unable to pin something as inconsequential as a Firbolg,” she told herself.

The slowed Ghostraven was unable to escape Relvain’s pin and, when the other came down to rescue it, the Shardmind caught both of them in a Kinetic Wave. Soon it was unconscious and they were able to finish off the other.

...Cachlain's Cyclops Minions Are Cornered...

…And the Kidnapped Citizens…

Ragnar the Mighty raced toward the Ruins of Rhest. The ancient city was hidden in the swamps which were gradually engulfing it.

“Where are they?” he asked. “Amyria said some revenant figured out these ruins are where the slavers they are seeking are operating from.”

Then he heard the sounds of battle.

“That’s where the blood will be,” his sword told him.

He tried to ignore it. The sword always tried to out-barbarian him. He didn’t like that much.

Running to the sound of the fighting, he found a passageway leading down into the ruins. He got there just in time to see a Stone Golem rampage through the party Amyria sent him to find. Charging in, he told himself the Golem wasn’t the only one who could rampage.

His sword agreed.

“Shut up, Wicked Fang,” he told it.

He was able to charge the Stone Golem repeatedly when Krasire — the Shardmind turned out to be a psion — forced it back toward the imprisoned citizens they had been sent to free.

Then his sword got stuck in the rocky hide of the Golem, Ragnar could see how he could twist the sword and free it. Likely hurting the stone creature in the process. "It might break Wicked Fang, though…

A smile crossed Ragnar’s face, and he twisted hard. No break, but maybe now the sword might not be so quick to call him a whiner.

The sword did not seem to mind. Almost seemed like it enjoyed the risk.

The Seed of Winter whispered, “Dominance is control of the battlefield. Not just making them hit themselves. Not just making them hit their friends. Control is dominance of the battlefield.”

Grim Shadowfox watched as her shadow detached itself from her feet and went over to stand behind the Cyclops Crusher. “That greatclub of his might have the reach of my inescapable rapier, but it will do nothing to a shadow on the stone.”

Unfortunately Shadowfox was soon separated from her shadow, unable to use it to gain combat advantage. The Stone Golem’s rampage pushed her back, but not her shadow. So she just piled on her shrouds until she could get that advantage back.

When she did, her vampiric rapier was able to channel some of the golem’s essence into her own undead being. Soon the Golem was nothing but gravel and they were able to turn to the Cyclops themselves.

Krasire pondered the Seed’s words. “What could be more useful than damaging themselves? And how could I spread my augments out longer in a big battle. I have used all my daily powers, so I will need to make the most of my mental powers for the rest of the day.”

Relvain Blackaxe was finally able to get the Cyclops Crusher up against a wall of the cave. “Not quite as fun as pinning a dragon, but effective nonetheless,” she thought.

The Cyclops’s Evil Eye was doing little to fend off the damage that Shadowfox and Ragnar were pouring on. And, of course, Relvain was doing her share as well.

“Nice to have a tank who can do some damage,” the barbarian told her.

Krasire was doing a good job of getting the two Cyclops to swing at each other, but they didn’t seem to hit very often. When they did, not a lot of damage ensued.

The Crusher did go down. And the other Cyclops — the Slaver with all the barbed nets and shuriken — headed off in a hurry.

After they searched the body, they freed the captured citizens and followed a map they found to a portal which opened with a scroll from the Crusher’s body.

Stepping through the portal, Relvain found herself surrounded by a circle of tall, columnar stones. A ring of glowing runes encircled them, but it dimmed after they arrived.

Twelve-foot-tall humanoids immediately ambushed them in the circle.

“Firblogs,” the shieldmaiden snorted. “I guess the Slaver warned them we were coming.”

...With a Little Help from her Friends

The mercenaries brought Krasire and his wounded mount back to Brindol, where they were greeted as heroes. While Quelenna Entromiel was not present — she was still politicking back in Sayre — she had arranged for a parade in their behalf.

Her agents were quick to credit Krasire for his efforts, but the mercenaries were the stars who had broken the blockade. The result was clear.

Quelenna’s gambit had succeeded.

Testing the waters with Odos, Krasire found the Githzerai leader unwilling to commit to any politics. He wanted the voting over. With Quelenna in the lead, any commitment he might make to Amyria would only prolong the voting at this point. “Maybe I can convince him once Amyria is closer to winning.”

He already had the Deva vote locked up, since he had convinced Bejam to join the council after saving Nefelus from an Exarch of Tiamat. And with the people of thinking so well of Amyria — since he had convinced them of the historical importance of religion in past wars — he was able to convince Inogo as well.

Shadowfox told him the people of Overlook seemed to be impressed with her credentials as a member of the Order of the Blackfeather, even when she told them she had only been associated with the group for a couple of days. So the Revenant went to the High Council in the dwarven city and convinced them the Black Feather was backing Amyria.

Then a stealth raid by Hobgoblins was easily foiled by the city guards. Eoffram Troyas decided to use this as proof the forces of evil were easily defeated. Trying to convince the people of Brindol that this meant his aggressive strategies would quickly pay off, Troyas made a move shore up the votes in Elsir Vale.

So confident had Krasire become with the Revenant’s abilities, that he left this gambit entirely up to Trinity. But working by herself the Revenant was unable to prove the danger of the Hobgoblins was exaggerated or even show that they were not associated with the Githyanki.

As she died, Lyrindel had a strange thought: “My soul is frozen in many pieces. My body as well. What if I split my mind as well? Legends say the swarm mind was created at the same time as the dryad mind.”

Two dragon sisters became heroes. Great metallic-dragon gods brought them to Bahamut and asked that he reward them. Bahamut told them the pair they could choose any kind of mind they wanted. The first sister said, “I will choose the mind of a tree, serene and slow, able to think a single thought for a long time.” She became the first hamadryad.

The other sister said, “I will choose the mind of the beehive, able to think many things at once.” She became the first bee swarm.

Lyrindel thought about this. “I will try to die with the mind of the swarm,” she decided. “I wonder how many ways I can split my personality before I lose consciousness.”

As Trinity shadowfox watched Krasire attempt the next round of diplomacy, she became convinced the Shardmind was going to blow it. Then she began to see the way the rock-person was able to become one of the secret masters of an entire city.

Suddenly, Quelenna was on the offensive again with another of her gambits. She had been nosing around in their finances and found the heroes who were supporting Amyria had profited substantially. “Maybe they only vote for this strange Deva because they know she will send them where they can acquire the most loot,” she suggested.

Trinity was quick to her own defense. “I have not profited at all by my association with ”/wikis/the-order-of-the-black-feather" class=“wiki-page-link”> The Order of the Black Feather," she insisted. Since none of the evidence indicated Trinity had looted anything, Trinity was off the hook.

She could see that Krasire could make no such claim. Yet he was able to overcome the accusation by promising to return the Seed of Winter to its rightful owner and to contribute his profits to the Alliance cause.

Quelenna’s second gambit was nowhere near as successful as her first, even losing some of the support she had garnered earlier.

Krasire apparently saw that Eoffram had the momentum and deftly offered Elsir Vale seat to Eoffram Troyas if Amyria got the leadership role.

“That ought to take the edge off his attacks on our candidate,” Shadowfox decided. “He won’t want to insult her too publicly if he knows he might lose the seat should she win.”

Krasire told Shadowfox he was going to talk to Fariex to see if the dragon-merchant was impressed by the way they were foiling the gambits, so she decided to talk to Inogo. Both negotiations were successful: Fariex the Scalehammer laughed heartily as he admitted he was impressed, and Inogo Dravitch was glad the council was coming to a consensus around Amyria.

Trinity turned underground, gathering rumors — and even spreading a few herself.

Turned out she wasn’t the only one taking this route. She caught wind of Quelenna’s effort to bribe some officials in Sayre. When the bribes went public, Quelenna lost the last of her non-Dornatholian support.

Desperate to stop the dangers she saw in the rash policies being advocated by Eoffram Troyas, Quelenna withdrew from the race and threw her support behind the candidate she thought would be more willing to listen to conservative ideas: Amyria!

Desperate to prove his plan’s viability, Eoffram sent out some false orders to two cities. He made it look like the Alliance Council was commanding them to raise civilian armies and strike back at the invaders. Shadowfox lit out like a banshee, using her endurance to beat the messengers to one target city.

Later she returned to Sayre and heard rumors that Krasire had taken a more leisurely pace. Even flying on his hippogriff, he got to Overlook after the messenger had presented the fake orders to the dwarves. But his masterful diplomacy managed to convince the High Council to wait for confirmation.

Which never came.

“I guess it never pays to underestimate the skills of someone who claims to be one of the Secret Masters of Waterdeep,” she said. Back out on the streets, she was able to undermine confidence in Eoffram by spreading rumors about his fake orders.

This set up Krasire for his final round of diplomacy, winning the leadership position for Amyria.

...But a Blockade Threatens...

… to Upend his Support of Amyria…

After Kalad, the paladin from Overlook was killed, Lord Torrance rushed out to avenge his death. But the Githyanki assassins had left behind an ambush, which killed Torrance himself.

With two of the top leaders dead, Amyria told Krasire the Coalition needed new leadership. After careful consideration of the alternatives, the Shardmind convinced Amyria she should run for the office.

Two other candidates had put themselves forward: Eoffram Troyas, a half-elf member of the Council in Brindol, and Quelenna Entromiel, an Eladrin merchant who rules over the settlement of Dornaithos.

Krasire believes Troyas, who hasn’t even been chosen for the Elsir Vale seat vacated by Kalad yet, is to brash and aggressive to lead the Coalition. And Quelenna is just the opposite — convinced a defensive posture will eventually win without diverting too many resources from trade.

With Bejam already backing Amyria because of Krasire’s intervention to save his island from a Winter-Court dragon who had thrown in with the Githyanki, Krasire decided to start his campaign for Amyria by targeting the respresentative of the distant city of Sherrbyr, Deacon Inogo Dravitch.

Belinda was able to open a portal to the village of one of her father’s vassals, which made his journey to Sherrbyr a lot quicker. He found a religious community open to many religions. So varied were the opinions, the entire society seemed caught up in endless debate.

Open-air forums were everywhere, so Krasire decided to take advantage of this. He set himself up on a soapbox in one of the open squares and began propounding on the history of warfare and the importance of all the various religions in that history. Didn’t take him long before he had the crowd squarely in Amyria’s court.

“That should help Inogo see the wisdom of siding with Amyria,” he told himself.

As Belinda got ready for the musical to start, a young elven lady sat down beside her. “That’s funny,” she thought. “Here I am at a play about an elven princess, and a girl sits next to me who looks just like a high elven princess.” So she started up a conversation.

Returning to Sayre, Krasire found the city in an uproar. Hobgoblin brigands were blockading trade in the Elsir Vale. The Elsir Consortium was crippled by the blockade, and Quelenna Entromiel was quick to exploit the situation for her own political gain.

“The Consortium is a competitor of mine,” the ruler of Dornaithos told the people. “But this demonstrates what I’ve been saying all along. Trade will be vital to defeating the Githyanki threat.” Quelenna announced she was hiring mercenaries to break the blockade. “Trade protects itself. I will put up the money to keep the resources flowing.”

Figuring that hiring mercenaries would take awhile, Krasire decided it was time to fly his hippogriff, Xerxes, to break the blockade before Quelenna got all the credit.

He flew out and found a few Hobgoblins blocking a bridge.

“Not much of a blockade,” he thought. “I can take them out before the mercenaries arrive. Then I can tell everyone Amyria sent me out to scout the blockade and her quick thinking and careful planning allowed me to break it quickly.”

Sure enough, he was able to kill two of the Hobgoblins with a quick Irruption of the Living Gate. The third Hobgoblin was obviously a lot tougher.

“Must be a veteran,” Krasire realized.

Hanging back and hitting the creature with his mental powers, the Shardmind was able to bloody it without taking damage. But then he got overconfident and had Xerxes swoop in for the kill.

The Hobgoblin was ready for it. With a heroic leap, he grabbed Xerxes’s claw and pulled him close enough to swing his axe at the Hippogriff.

Seeing the wound his mount had taken, Krasire jumped to the ground and engaged the Hobgoblin Vet hand to hand.

Much more to the Hobgoblin’s liking.

Soon the Shardmind was bloodied as well, desperately trying to heal himself while he wore down the veteran. Then the Hobgoblin got in a lucky blow and Krasire went down.

When he regained consciousness, Xerxes was licking his face and the Hobgoblin was dead nearby. He could see Quelenna’s mercenaries removing its head and mounting it on a pike. Apparently they had arrived in time to finish off the Hobgoblin and revive him.

By the time he got back to Sayre, Quelenna’s partisans were already celebrating her “victory” over the blockade.

...Failed to Decide They Need a Leader...

…Civiron, a sister city to Sayre, was burned to the ground…

…5,000 were killed, and the Coalition elected Lord Torrance as its leader. Torrance sent an emissary to Overlook, telling Kalad that the Coalition was willing to admit they were wrong about selecting a leader. This proved to be enough to convince the proud dwarven paladin to bring Overlook back into the coalition.

Krasire stopped to try to find the bodies of Klaxi and Lyrindel before he fled the collapsing iceberg. Without the enhanced magic of the Seed of Winter, its structural integrity was not going to last long.

Relvain Dragonpinner showed no such compunctions. The shieldmaiden headed out the secret door as soon as the first cracks began to show in the ice overhead.

Noticing objects embedded in one of the icy walls, the Shardmind threw everything he had into breaking them free. Sure enough, it was Klaxi and Lyrindel as they had been captured in ice by the gargoyles.

The prospect of carrying two bodies out of the magickal ice structure that was already breaking apart around him was too much for Krasire to try on his own, so he headed off to the dragon’s treasure room. He was able to leap up the slippery blocks of crumbling ice to get to the secret door to the Grand Hall where the Ice Gargoyles had killed Klaxi and Lyrindel, but he got the idea that acrobatics — as good as he was at them — might not be the best way to handle the slippery surfaces.

A hard run through the hall convinced him that was little better as a strategy for dealing with the dangerous surfaces.

In the Frost Giant Enclave, he found the rest of the party had left with Relvain, abandoning Uarion. The Githzerai mindmage insisted he was no longer under the control of the Seed of Winter and asked Krasire if he brought it with him. When the Shardmind admitted he had forgotten the Artifact, they returned to Chillreaver’s Chamber.

That return was made easier by the fact that Uarion had spent so much time as Chillreaver’s slave. He knew exactly how to open the door straight into the chamber. He simply dropped to his knees and bowed his head to the ice.

“Prepare for supplication in the proper manner,” Krasire said, remembering the words written on the ice. Those words, along with the door they were written upon, slid into the wall and they could see the Seed of Winter lying on the floor below.

As the Seed implored them to return it to the Winter Court, Uarion told Krasire to stand on the other side of the gallery. He blasted a Concussion Orb directly under the Seed, throwing it up into the hands of Krasire.

Snatching the acorn-shaped artifact from the air, Krasire spotted the best way back to the enclave where he saw the body of a Winter Wolf he had checked out earlier. It was still dead.

By now, the Shardmind was convinced getting out was going to prove harder than he thought at first. So he began using his arcane knowledge to find the best way out. After all, the iceberg was little more than a crystal held together with magic. Who better than a Shardmind to figure out how it would come apart?

This insight told him athletics might be the best way to climb down, followed by a leap or two to make his way the room where Uarion had imprisoned his ice-magma hybrids. He found the best way down a hole where Klaxi had left a rope pinned with the stolen trident.

When he got to Xurgelmek’s Chamber, his crystal prowess showed him the spot where a strategic stomp created a rough stair down to the lower level. Calling on all his endurance he was able to make it to the stairs before they collapsed.

The combination of his perception and his arcane knowledge was all it took to get him and Uarion to the last of the strange vessels — the Apparatuses of Kwalish — which looked like mechanical lobsters.

“They brought me here,” he told Uarion. “They should get us back to Nefelus.”

On his way to join the Coalition Council in Sayre, Kalad was assassinated by a crack team of Githyanki killers.

The actor who played Titus Androwdicus in Jerath’s play told Avenglen the bard was currently working on a much better play, called Roland and Juliette, which was currently on the road in a place called Sayre. He suggested it was a much more cultured city than Overlook and a better place to see good theater.

As she headed out of Elsir Vale toward this university town, Avenglen recognized the signs of war all around her. She had seen enough wars in her 146 years to spot the clues: refugees on the road, soldiers looking very serious on patrol.

As she neared Sayre, she saw a large group of soldiers heading out on what looked like an important mission.

Inside the city, she found accommodations at the River Jewel which turned out to be quite a nice inn. The clerk told he how to find the theater where she could see Roland and Juliette. He even mentioned Jerath was staying at the River Jewel himself.

Lord Torrance of Sayre ordered an immediate response to the outrage — the heroic dwarf paladin assassinated by Githyanki. But the Githyanki had already escaped via a portal to the Winter Court area of the Feywild. Anticipating the response, they had laid an ambush — manned by Hobgobilins — which caught Lord Torrance off guard and killed him.

Krasire brought the vessel back to Nefelus and was greeted by a very happy member of the Thraxinium, named Bejam. Amyria was there as well and they led him to a big parade were the people of the city feted him as the hero who had saved their city. The mages who had protected the island while Krasire was defeating the dragon were also hailed as heroes.

Amyria reminded him that the purpose of all this was to get Nefelus to join the alliance and send a representative to serve on the council. She suggested the end of the island’s isolation was over and the only problem might be Bejam’s willingness to serve on the council.

Krasire talked it over with Bejam and found that mage was struggling with this decision and wanted to do what was best for his people. But the Shardmind was able to convince him that representing those people on the council might be the best way to serve them.

Impressed with the arcane power of the mages of Thraxinium, Krasire pointed out those powers could best be applied to the protection of Nefelus through the alliance if he was representing them on the council. All it took was a bit more diplomacy and Bejam agreed to leave with Amyria as soon as he told the Thraxinium of his decision.

Once on the Conqueror, Krasire discovered the vessel was capable of flying. Although it had been anchored in the harbor at Nefelus, once Tokk’it and his ghostly crew got it under way, it was airborne in a short time, flying towards Sayre. Belinda went on ahead to get back to her studies at the university.

But it wasn’t long before she was back with bad news: Although the Coalition’s decision to name a leader — Lord Torrance, as it turned out — convinced Kalad to rejoin the council, he was assassinated on his way to rejoin them in Sayre. Lord Torrance was riding out to capture the Githyanki assassins who had pulled off this foul deed.

...Is Born

The Shieldmaiden Puts Her Shield…

…to a use no dwarven shield has ever been put before: pinning an exarch of Tiamat to the wall.

“The mages must be desperate to save their people. They send outsiders here to do their work. How weak! How pathetic! Soon the storm comes to them, and nothing will escape my wrath!”
— Chillreaver, Exarch of Tiamat

As she stepped into the chamber Chillreaver had constructed to house the Seed of Winter, Relvain Blackaxe was impressed by the terrifying sight.

The room was bathed in blue-white light, with beams focused on a small white object floating atop a pedestal high above her head. The beams seemed to originate from 10 silvery mirrors positioned along the east and west sides of the walkway 30 feet above the secret door they entered through.

Down on the level where she and the Shardmind stood, she could see the base of the pedestal where the beams were focused; the pedestal’s length made it appear almost like an ice obelisk. An energy hung about the room, and the air was colder than they’d felt anywhere else in the complex.

Briefly, she felt an invasive presence in her mind, as if it is searching for something . . . and then it was gone.

She saw that sat upon a rune-inscribed icy dais just in front of the secret entrance to the Treasure Chamber. A gigantic, two-headed white dragon met her gaze, its eyes black as the soulless depths and its mouths smoking with its icy breath.

A dire warning, then it attacked.

Her counter-attack was able to concentrate the dragon’s attention on herself. She and Krasire were able to create an opening so the Shardmind got around to the other side. Rather attacking from both sides, however, they decided the Psion should go about smashing the mirrors which seemed to be powering the small white object — the Seed of Winter, they assumed.

Krasire had some initial success, but he soon disappeared around the corner and Relvain heard no more mirrors breaking. She began to fear for their mission, even though the dragon was having a lot of difficulty hitting her. Trying to escape and bring back some help for Krasire, Relvain backed away from the two-headed dragon.

But the dragon was having none of that. Leaping into the air, it flew into the Treasure Chamber and blocked the only way out. That put its back against the wall and gave Relvain her chance. Her shield-trainers called it The Shield and a Hard Place. Placing her shield against the body of the dragon, she pressed it against the wall of ice, pinning it there.

And Relvain Dragonpinner was born. For the rest of her life, Relvain Blackaxe would remember the helplessness in the Exarch’s four eyes as she held it there.

“A small victory, perhaps,” thought the shieldmaiden, yet it gave her the hope she needed to continue once the dragon broke free.

Eventually, though her strength began to fade and she knew the battle was in the hands of Krasire. Unless he could break the rest of the mirrors, the dragon was sure to outlast her.

Avenglen regarded the enraged dwarf with curiosity. She found him outside the Orb Theatre, owned by a famous Drow Bard named Jerath. The dwarf was passing out handbills, which accused Jerath of plagiarizing some of his work. But it seemed to somewhat short of evidence of actual plagiarism. She went inside and saw the play — a bloody work called Titus Androwdicus — and talked to the main actor after the show. He had other explanations for Murrik Ironfell’s anger.

He knew it was a desperation measure, but Krasire was convinced he had to try something. Mental communication with the Seed of Winter was risky, yet it was something only a Psion like himself could try.

His desperation was well-informed: While the dwarven shieldmaiden was able to battle the two-headed dragon to a standstill — each of them able to damage the other only slowly — he could see she was weakening. The Exarch of Tiamat was simply able to take more damage than the plucky dwarf.

The Seed of Winter and Krasire, on the other hand, had reached a different kind of stalemate. His Irruption of the Living Gate had been able to break two of the mirrors which were powering the Artifact as soon as he had entered the room.

He had hoped to use the Gate to teleport to the upper level of the icy room where the mirrors were. The icy walls were too slick for his to climb. The Seed had stymied this plan with some kind of mental attack. Since that time, the Seed had dominated his mind, forcing him two the far end of the room where eight more mirrors poured energies from all over the world into the Seed itself.

“Why do you serve this dragon?” he asked the Seed. “Why not break free and work with us instead?”

He was not sure such a message would even get through. But answer came nonetheless. He was able to understand the mind of the Seed of Winter to such a degree that only a Psion could achieve. The Seed had four goals which informed its actions.

Bring the touch of winter to even the most sweltering climes.

Oppose the agents of the Summer Fey and elemental fire.

Demand obedience from the weak and frail.

Be reunited with the Winter Court in the Feywilde.

“We could help you,” he told the Seed. “We could take you to the Winter Court.”

The Concordance the Artifact had reached with the Exarch was too strong. He could tell the offer was tempting the Seed, but Chillreaver was allowing the Seed to bring cold and ice to this tropical Paradise and it was demanding obedience from the Council of Mages who ruled the place.

Their agreement on these two principles had allowed the dragon and the Seed to reach a level of Concordance that practically welded their minds into one. Krasire could see the Exarch was using the Seed of Winter for its own purposes. He also saw it would never see that itself as long as the mirrors were giving it such power.

He had to break the mirrors. First, however, he had to break free of the Seed’s mental grasp.

Then, he got his chance: When the Artifact’s attacks failed, he teleported to the upper level and ran to hide from the Seed’s line of sight in an alcove where the main door was still closed. From there, he was able to finish off the mirrors on the side where his Living Gate had irrupted earlier.

“Fortunately, I was able to preserve my mental powers while I was dominated.”

But some of the mirrors on the other side were out of the reach of his mental blasts. So he ran for a different kind of protection: Each mirror was in its own tiny alcove; by keeping his body pressed against the wall of the nearer alcoves, he was able to stay out of the line of sight of the acorn-shaped Artifact.

He broke the first two mirrors by dashing from alcove to alcove. The third alcove presented a different problem. Situated directly in front of the Seed of Winter, its walls provided him no protection from its line of sight. He knew he could not allow it to resume its domination of his mind.

So he ran behind the mirror and hid from it there. When the Seed shifted its focus to Relvain, he was able to smash the eighth mirror from behind and dash to hide behind the ninth mirror.

The dwarf fell once both the dragon and the Seed were using their powers on her. So, Krasire found himself trapped in the next-to last alcove by the dragon. His Kinetic Wave was perfect for this situation, though, and he used it to blast the mirror and the dragon simultaneously.

The mirror shattered, the dragon was pushed back 20 feet, and he dashed to hide behind the final mirror.

The dwarf had recovered enough to try to distract the dragon from below and another Kinetic Wave shattered the final mirror. As it fell in pieces to the floor 30 feet below, the Seed of Winter fell from its pedestal as well.

The dragon looked around in alarm as a blast of energy crackled through the room. It flew out of the room into its treasure chamber and out a hole in the top of that room — which they had noticed earlier.

Seconds later it became apparent what the dragon was fleeing. A great rumbling sound was followed by deafening cracks. The magic which sustained Icehome was becoming undone, and the whole structure would soon crumble into the sea.

...And Take Down the Ice Gargoyles...

…With a Few Comments About the Bravery…

…of the Adventurers Waiting in the Wings.

“Pass through this portal and enter the presence of Chillreaver, master of Icehome, greatest among the Dark Queen’s frozen children. Prepare for supplication in the proper manner, and you can enter his fearsome domain and receive his cold gift.” Using his arcane powers, Krasire was able to see through the illusion which was hiding these words.

But he didn’t have much time to figure out what they meant. With the sounds of cracking ice, two of the statues came to life.

At first he had a lot of confidence in his ability to damage them. When the grabbed him, he could still use his mental powers to chip away at them. The dwarven defender who came up here with him — after berating the wounded warriors below as cowards — was able to keep one of them occupied most of the time.

Even when he was grabbed, failed to escape, and imprisoned in an ice-cube jail, he could still hit the Ice Gargoyles and escape with a teleport.

Eventually his mental powers began to flag, and he ran out of teleports. Then his confidence began to flag as well.

Bloodied, he fought on. But he began to wonder if this would be his last fight. A claw attack took him down. And, as he slipped out of consciousness, his logical mind could not fail to notice that the life force that animated his crystals was fading, too.

Avenglen finally found civilization in the small human city of Fallcrest. The High Warden who ruled in his small court seemed unusually familiar with the arts in the area. Warden Markelhay even said he knew the famous Drow Bard himself. Apparently Jerath had spent a short amount of time in Fallcrest before moving on to bigger and better things in the Elsir Vale — to the west. His wife explained that the Bard had built a theater — called The Orb Theater — in the Dwarven city of Overlook. She even suggested her daughter was reporting that his fame had spread to Sayre, a university city closer to the coast.

Relvain Blackaxe gave the fallen Psion a potion of regeneration. Made from Troll blood, the potion would keep the Shardmind on his feet.

Sure enough, Krasire was able to resume his attacks. Relvain wasn’t certain he would ever resume his confidence. The brush with death had weakened his resolve and he called out an apology: “I’m sorry if my weakness caused your death.”

The shieldmaiden, however, was having none of that. “Oh, I’m not going to die. And, with that potion in your bloodstream, I don’t think you will, either.”

She saw the growing recognition in his eyes as he seemed to figure out how the potion could keep on healing him. His renewed determination and fancy footwork helped her take down one of the gargoyles.

Then it was easy for her to force the last statue’s attention to remain on her — she was a Dwarven Defender, after all — and Krasire was able to shift away and bring his mental powers to bear.

...and no one hears...

…does it make a sound?

Both Klaxi and Lyrindel died fighting some Ice Gargoyles, but no one will ever know how bravely they fought, how close they came to defeating the last gargoyle, or what they might have learned about them because no one saw they die and survived.

Those who did survive will just have to fight their fight all over again and learn it all themselves.

Ice-Boosted Giants Return...

…To Take Back Their Lair

Borg could not see newcomer from his perch on the giants’ icy platform, but he could hear her. “I think it’s Andrea Ravn,” the Hamadryad told him. She seemed reassured.

When Nara returned, he was glad they had help. Nara seemed energized. When they drove her up the slide, she was hardly injured. But now the icy blue glow in her eyes was stronger. Borg could only speculate about what was different.

“Maybe the Seed of Winter has some power beyond enslaving these creatures,” he thought to himself. “It could have given her special cold powers. Or something.”

It didn’t take long before he got a look at the newcomer: Nara slid both of them off the edge into the waters below, as another Winter Wolf attacked them and the Frost Giant peppered them with icy bolts.

The newcomer was a Dragonborn warlord. Not ideal as a defender, but better than Borg himself.

Or the druid: Lyrindel was constantly transforming back and forth between her beast form — a swarm of insects — and her dryad form. It made it hard to injured her permanently, but it didn’t do much to hold the wolf back.

Andrea Ravn suddenly realized this was no ordinary dream. She had heard of DreamQuests before, but she had never experienced one. The fortuneteller in the dream…something was fishy about her. “Thank you for coming, my friends,” the fortuneteller said to those gathered there. But Andrea was not sure she was a friend. She searched the dream house for clues about what was wrong…and failed. She awoke from the dream unrested. She found she was no longer in the Solace Bole. “Back in the iceberg, I see.” She saw some of her companions still sleeping, but Lyrindel was missing. She climbed up the tunnel the Umber Hulks had excavated. But before she found the dryad, she heard a giant attacking.

When they finally killed off the wolf, Lyrindel could see that Andrea was having trouble keeping all their spirits up. They managed to get back up the ice stairs, but Nara kept pushing them toward the edges.

“Keep to the center of the platform!” she shouted. And the new elf was doing a good job at that. But it was hard for Lyrindel and Andrea to flank the other giant sometimes without getting perilously close to the drop-off.

Sure enough: When Lyrindel shifted back to her humanoid form, Nara caught her on the slippery ice and sent her off the 30-foot drop. Not into the icy water this time, but she took more damage falling to the hard ice of the iceberg.

“Now I’m going to have to cross the stream again,” she thought. “Through that nasty fog.”

Yet the new elf — Borg, he said his name was — turned out to be a fast thinker. Before she could begin the roundabout path through the fog, he pointed at the ice at his feet. Green tendrils began to form. Through the ice, Lyrindel could see them growing rapidly inside the ice, finally reaching the ice below her, near her own feet. There they burst out, forming a portal in front of her.

“Step through!” he shouted from above.

When she did, she found herself back up on the platform. “That was easier than jumping the stream through that icy fog.”

Looking around, she saw that Andrea was about to pass out, even though they had finished off Nara’s ice-giant companion. Fortunately she and Borg were able to concentrate their damage on Nara and finish her off before the Dragonborn fell.

Lyrindel Dreams of Two Dragonborn...

,,,and Realizes she Knows one of them:

Andrea Ravn, the healer in their party.

Garen Bladerun pondered the meaning of his dream: How could someone else steal a part of his soul? “Sure, those who seek the Scale of War believe it is part of my soul.” But Andrea Ravn had no knowledge of his connection to Io. She thought he was dedicated to Bahamat. Not to the Platinum Dragon’s father.

Lyrindel remembered her dream. She was watching Andrea walk through a dark forest. She came to a clearing where a great spear rose from the earth itself. Andrea paused at the edge of the meadow to watch as a great bird flew toward the spear.

Lyrindel realized the bird did not see the spear. The blade of the Earth-Spear was so sharp, so thin, it could hardly be seen when viewed on-edge.

Andrea seemed to realize this. Her view of the spear was slightly aside from the path of the bird. She shouted warning the bird, but the great fowl did not heed her. It flew straight into the great head of the Earth-Spear and cleaved itself into two.

It took Andrea Ravn hours to get back to sleep. When she finally did she found herself in another dream: a quest dream, from which it seemed she could not escape without fulfilling some quest. Not as herself but as a human tasked with rescuing urchins from the grasp of an evil criminal who forced them to steal for him. His name was Gaedren Lamm.

Lyrindel looked on in amazement as the two pieces of the great bird fell, one on either side of the giant spear. For the two pieces did not die. Instead they sprang to the sky again, each a dragon. One of the dragons had metallic scales; the other did not.

Clinging to the head of the spear was a third portion of the great bird. It appeared to be an internal organ, sack-like in shape.

“Probably its stomach,” Lyrindel thought as the organ split open and spilled eight seeds onto the soft ground.

Seven of the seeds grew into dragons who flew off into the distance. The eighth seed sprouted last, into a dragonborn who was fully clad in full plate armor, shining in the sun in the manner of a paladin.

The armored dragonborn walked over to Andrea, who seemed to recognize him. Together they walked back into the wood.

Well, the Local Leader, at Least

Borg and Lyrindel Take on Nara

Lyrindel woke the rest of the Order of the Black Feather — or whatever they were calling themselves — inside the Solace Bole before the ritual’s effect dumped them back on the icy floor the crevasse room. They were still so groggy that most of them went right back to sleep.

Andrea, the warlord, didn’t even really wake up. She seemed to be caught in the depths of some dream. As soon as they were out of the Solace Bole, she lay down on the floor and fell back asleep.

But Lyrindel could see footprints in the snow which told a story: Someone had entered the room while they were hidden away in the Feywilde; the interloper had come in the way they had and immediately turned toward the tunnel excavated by the Ice-Touched Umber Hulks.

Inspecting the footprints, the druid became convinced they were made by an elf.

Re-assured, she entered the excavation and ran into an elven ranger returning to the crevasse room. The elf asked her who she was and explained that he had been sent by the High Lady to warn her about the dangers of the Seed of Winter.

“She told me it was dangerous for a member of the Summer Court to become attuned to it,” the ranger said. “We may need to find a Winter Court fey we can trust so we can hand it off to them. We might be able to carry it for a while, even use it. But we cannot risk extreme attunement.”

She introduced herself and found out the ranger was named Borg. He came from the Moonshae Islands. He told her that he had scouted the next room without being seen. It didn’t look like the giants there were watching the hole that was dug by the Umber Hulks, but they might be spotted if they enter by the main entrance.

The description of the room — which spiraled up to an ice bridge exiting to the next level — gave Lyrindel an idea: If they could sneak past the giants, she might be able to bring down the bridge with Earth Roots.

That might trap the giants on this level. Unfortunately, it would trap her sleeping companions down here with them.

So, they just went with a frontal assault. Borg went with a favorite ranger stance, the Skirmishing Stance. This stance was hampered somewhat by the fact that the giants’ ice arrows and frost attacks could slow or immobilize. Fortunately, they seldom were able to hit him.

Which was good, with their healer asleep and dreaming warlord dreams.

Once they got closer to the stream which flowed through the room, they realized the mist rising from it was dangerous in its own right. And the wolf on the other side was breathing frosty blasts of its own.

But they killed it quickly once they got under the bridge.

Andrea Ravn woke from a strange dream about a dragon and an elemental. She was still in the Solace Bole. The rest of her team was still sleeping around her. But thoughts about the dream kept running around in her head. The elemental clove the dragon in two. That was straight out of her religious training. All dragonborn are taught about the battle between Io and Erek-Hus at an early age. And two dragon-gods arising from the two halves of Io was well-known. But the part about the scales…she had no recollection of that. These thoughts seemed important somehow. And she kept going over and over them in her head. “I must get back to sleep,” she said. But it took her hours before she could actually rest.

Borg finished off the wolf before he tried to cross the river. But the crossing river was hard. As he got close, the mist around rising from the stream began to condense around his legs, slowing his progress.

“That’s gonna make it hard to jump across,” the dryad warned.

So, he decided to swim. Even that was impeded the freezing fog, but he was swept downstream. Finally he emerged from the water to discover an enormous stairway leading up to the ice bridge. He danced across the ice.

Before he even got to the stairs the first giant fell up on the ice bridge.

Seeing her companion go down, other ice giant — apparently named Nara — hightailed it up the steep incline.

Garen Bladerun jerked awake. He found himself in an unaccustomed luxury. “The River Jewel,” he thought to himself, remembering the name of the inn he was staying at. “In Sayre. But that was a weird dream.” Another dragonborn was in the dream, a warlord. And it seemed like she was trying to steal something from him. “Like she was trying to steal a part of my soul.” But that didn’t make any sense. The three who had tried to steal his soul had nothing to do with some warlord.

Hearing the laughter of Lyrindel, Jonalith made his way cautiously up the slope leading out of the crevasse room where they fought the Blue Hulks — the last thing he needed was to slip back into the hole.

Another voice — an elven voice? — joined the hamadryad’s. They seemed to be celebrating their victory over a wolf and a Frost Giant. A very large wolf. “Winter Wolf it looks like to me,” Jonalith. “It almost enough to give credit to the fey stereotype. Frolicking while there’s treasure to be found.”

As Jonalith looked around, he saw piles of equipment. Most of the weapons were too large to swung by any but a giant.

“But that doesn’t mean they don’t have baubles hidden among their personal belongings.”

Sure enough. A quick search revealed a large sack of coins, covered with runes. “Have to ask someone who knew Alexander Winterforged. These look dwarven to me. I’d guess there’s about 10,000 here.”

And Jonalith’s guesses were notoriously accurate, especially where gold was concerned.

It took a little more searching, but he also found a platinum ring with Bahamut’s symbol and a ruby-encrusted letter opener.

Introducing himself to the new elf — who turned out to be a ranger, too — he suggested they go wake up the others. “From the looks of things, about 15 Frost Giants live here. Even with this one, we can’t have accounted for more than a third of their number.”

Proof that the Seed of Winter...

…Can Corrupt Creatures Already Corrupted…

Klaxi inched his way into the icy chamber. He could hear something moving around in the rugged crevasse which split the upward slope. To his right, a newly excavated tunnel angled upward.

The high end of the tunnel (to the north) appeared to have another exit, but it was obscured by a giant stalagmite of ice.

But the Umber Hulks who had excavated the hole in the wall and were hiding in the crevasse must have heard him, too. Because they exploded out of the gap and rushed toward him.

Blue Umber Hulks.

Ice-Touched.

Klaxi raced out of the crevasse room just ahead of the creatures. Which were obviously under the control of the Seed of Winter.

Making his way to the fancy inn, Borg discovered it was called The River Jewel. It didn’t take long to find the member of the Coalition the Githzerai had told him about. Belinda was young, even for a human. She told him her parents would not like her to spend too much time in Nefelus. “It is under siege, surrounded by a ring of ice which blocks all shipping,” she explained. But I can get you past the ice.

Lyrindel was frustrated. The Ice-Touched Umber Hulks — “Blue Hulks?” she asked herself — had an attack which could daze creatures over a wide area.

They first used it when Klaxi came running out of the room where they hid. Raxor Steelwall rushed in to block their attack and found himself dazed and sliding toward the crevasse.

That seemed to be their strategy: Daze and slide their opponents into their hidey hole, then do a double grabbing attack with both of their claws. Once they had their prey in both claws, all they could do was crush their prey.

And most of the time the members of the Golden Scales — or the Order of the Black Feather, or whatever they were calling themselves these days, now they had joined the Alliance — were able to squirm free.

But dazed they couldn’t do much but swing at the creatures. And it took a lot of swinging to put a dent in the hulks’ armor. They concentrated their damage when they could. And, once they had bloodied the first of their targets, a new set of tactical options opened up.

For the creature could no longer daze with its gaze attacks, although it could still use the blasts from its eyes to slow its opponents.

“I suppose we could bloody all three, before we try to finish this one off,” she thought to herself. Then she saw the bloodied creature lift Klaxi off all of his feet.

“No, I think we should kill this one first. I’m not sure we can afford to take this much damage. After all, we are down to one healer. Warlords are all very good for encouraging others to keep fighting, but they have their limits.”

At the library of Nefelus, Borg asked the librarians about the Seed of Winter. Unfortunately, that raised suspicions. He was soon surrounded by official-looking people who wanted to know if he was part of the forces besieging their island. Once they found he was not, they asked him to help the forces trying to break the siege. He then found himself making his way toward the iceberg (where he suspected the Seed of Winter could be found) in a strange submersible craft which looked like a lobster.

Andrea Ravn could see that Raxor was handing out most of the damage, even if he wasn’t living up to his last name. “Steelwall, indeed. I never spent so much effort healing a wall.”

Indeed, the warlord had to resort to her best group heals to keep everybody alive.

But when she was handing out the orders, the monk was her go-to guy. All she had to do was point out an opening and he would deliver a good hit followed up with a flurry of blows. And when he was surrounded he could distribute that Stone Fist Flurry to a second Hulk.

And he was surrounded a lot. Finally the last of the blue creature went down.

After arguing with some of the others about a ring they found in the nose of one of the blue hulks, Andrea was glad when the druid identified it as a Ring of Personal Gravity. While the warlord knew she could use it, she gave it to Klaxi. Now she was the only healer. She would not be jumping to the fore, where the ring would be most useful.

“I guess my tanking days are done,” she thought ruefully.

Everyone agreed when she pointed out they needed to use their Scroll of the Solace Bole. When she read the words on the scroll, they all found themselves transported to a narrow space inside a tree located somewhere within the Feywilde.

Before she fell asleep, Andrea heard the hamadryad mumble, “Feels almost like home.”

Against his Will

The Githzerai Mindmage struggled…

,,,with the Seed of Winter even as it forced him to fight against his rescuers.

Klaxi was sure some of the pillars of ice between him and the figure on the far side of the prison were more than just ice stalagmites. He could see motion inside them, and he was sure they contained some of the elementals he had seen when he scouted this room earlier.

“But why would someone hide the elementals inside the ice?”

He approached the nearest pillar and began hacking at it to get to the elemental within. Some kind of fiery glow was visible inside. “Why would magma be associated with an ice elemental?” Klaxi was sure he had seen wind elementals as well, but that made no sense either.

“You have come to threaten the will of my master," a voice from the other end of the room accused. "The Seed must be protected at all costs. Approach no farther and leave the way you arrived, and I shall spare you the agony of the change.”

Klaxi thought he detected a glimmer of uncertainty in the way the creature he had been spoke, as if it were fighting against a force which was dominating its will.

Andrea Ravn rushed past to get to Uarion, the last survivor of Nefelus’s previous expedition to the strange, icy blockade of their tropical home. The Dragonborn Warlord was startled when the Githzerai unleashed a Chillfire Destroyer from the pillar Klaxi was attacking.

“An ice elemental powered by a core of super-heated magma. That explains the fiery glow.”

As Andrea tried to convince the Gith to be rescued, it continued to release elementals (Windwalkers as well as another Destroyer) cackling about how he was not so weak as to be vulnerable to Andrea’s intimidation.

As he continued to damage the first ice elemental, he realized its super-heated core was no longer being confined by the ice. In fact it was starting to burn him if he stood too close.

Once Amyria took him to the iceberg which seemed to be the source of the icy blockade, Raxor Steelwall made his way up through the caves below the ice to a chamber where a dead Behir was surrounded by a group of adventurers. They were plotting their next move, which seemed to revolve around rescuing a captured Githyanki.

Andrea Ravn could see her efforts to negotiate with Uarion were unsuccessful. So she concentrated on knocking the Githzerai unconscious before it could release more elementals.

Unfortunately, two of the ice elementals with red entrails were freed and a bunch of the Windwalkers before they were able to subdue the creature they were sent to rescue. Fearing mindmage shenanigans, he tried to tie the Gith up with rope after gagging him. Lyrindel, the dryad, was able to help (in between unleashing hordes of bugs on the elementals).

Borg followed the monk up the winding corridors inside the iceberg. He was cold. Maybe hitching a ride on the strange craft was not such a good idea.

Jonalith thought he saw the trick: The mindmage would have to be weakened before he could be convinced to shake off the will of the Seed of Winter.

But before he could tell the others, they had knocked out Uarion and were whittling down the Chillfire creatures. Each time one of those succumbed, it exploded in a ball of magma.

But by the time the second one died, they had learned to stand back as it exploded.

Searching the still-unconscious body, they found two potions of vitality and a large blue diamond. “Gotta be worth four or five grand,” the elf thought. But he still wasn’t sure a gag would do any good against a mage whose powers emanated from his mind.

Li Sun Manages to Save the Party...

…One last Time.

Li Sun knew he was on his last legs. Losing consciousness during the fight with Xurgelmek was the latest sign, but even during the battle at the entrance to Icehome he knew he was burning his inner resources at a furious rate.

As an ardent, he had been taught that a body can only heal so much.

And he knew that his had little left.

But the new fighter — a giant insect of some kind, who called himself “Klaxi” — was going to need some healing if he was to fight the behir. And everybody else seemed to be out it, except Valna.

Hardly a healer.

And, if they didn’t go fight the behir, the giant six-legged magickal lizard was going to come to them. It was already trying to widen the stairway down to where they resting.

When Klaxi charged the creature, Li Sun hoisted his weary bones off the icy floor and circled around to the other side. The behir was able to breathe lightning periodically so it wouldn’t help to stand back. “Might as well trap him between us,” Li Sun thought. “A little flanking never hurt.”

It turned out that getting up close and personal with the creature had its own problems. Not only did it have teeth and claws, but it was able to stomp so hard it could knock everyone around (for a considerable distance) to the ice. And then it devoured Klaxi.

“Well, that’s gonna make it hard to heal him.”

Li Sun could tell the fighter was trying to force his way back out. But even the ardent’s mental powers could not heal someone — or some insect — he could not see.

Fortunately, Li Sun had planted Treachery’s Seed in the behir’s weak little mind at the beginning of the battle. So every time it clawed him, it took a little bit out of itself.

The High Lady reguarded Lyrindel carefully. “You have served the Feywilde well. Mapping the Feydarke was a harrowing mission, but an important one. Now a new threat has arisen, one that cannot be charted. The Winter Court has taken an interest, and the Summer Court as well. The Moonshaes cannot afford to be ignorant of this new threat, an artifact known as The Seed of Winter. It may not even be safe for us to capture it, for it might corrupt us. We may even need it to be in the hands of the Unselie Court themselves.”

Klaxi had never been devoured before. But that did not mean he had to stop fighting.

On Athas, he often fought for his life. Not like this. He could still fight the creature from inside its maw, but getting out was his highest priority. Occasionally he got in an extra blow with one of his arms when the behir tried to attack the ardent.

But he still tried to pry his way out using his athletic skills.

Still having trouble getting free. “At least it cannot swallow anyone else while I’m stuck in its craw.”

When he finally forced his way out, he was close to dying. (“Or being digested,” he thought as the lightning breath flashed around him. “Who would have thought you could be digested by lightning?”)

Li Sun was able to heal him heroically before the behir turned on the healer.

And devoured him as easily as it had devoured Klaxi.

The Thri-Kreen warrior redoubled his attacks on the behir, which was still doing a lot of damage to itself. But Li Sun was having a much harder time escaping the creature’s jaws than Klaxi had. The ardent was trying a different approach — apparently impressed with how difficult his own brute-force methods had proved. He was trying to finesse his way out, twisting and turning as he trying make his way past the creature’s lashing tongue.

But Li Sun was no better as a acrobat than he was as an athlete. Klaxi could tell he had little chance of avoiding digestion. So he attacked the creature with everything he had.

It was not enough.

The behir was still unbloodied when the Thri-Kreen warrior admitted he had to retreat. “Maybe some of the others I saw in the entrance to the strange place will be able to help me pry the ardent clear,” he thought, even while he admitted to himself he was just rationalizing his failure.

He was able to convince one of the elven archers — the one who had come across with him in the mechanical lobster — to race back upstairs and help him rescue Li Sun.

He stood at the top of the stairs in shocked disbelief: Li Sun had somehow extricated himself from the behir. But the ardent lay unconscious at the creature’s feet. Klaxi could see he was still breathing, but he seemed to lack the inner resources to rouse himself.

Even as the behir devoured him again.

Lyrindel looked up at the librarian. The Great Temple of Nefelus was not a place where researchers were often disturbed. “Why have you been so interested in this Seed you seek? Our ritualists have need of the book you are reading.” When she explained that The Seed of Winter was an important artifact and might even be sentient, she was met with a cold stare. Then the ritual casters behind the matron explained that they believed that The Seed of Winter was part of an assault on their island nation. She told them they had to act fast. But the ritualists were dead set on maintaining their protections, not on journeying to the iceberg. So Lyrindel decided to help the brave adventurers they had sent to break the blockade.

That left him glad he had circled around while the Thri-Kreen charged up the most direct route. Valna found a room with a clear shot at the creature, along with plenty of ice pillars — stalagtites of a sort — behind which he could hide.

Once the blue lizard swallowed Li Sun, it became more lethargic and Valna was happy to reward its digestive torpor with a rain of arrows. Meanwhile, Klaxi was maintaining a steady attack on the creature himself.

All the while swearing to cut open the creature when it died.

They were able to bloody it quickly and then finish it off before it did too much damage to Klaxi. Indeed it hardly even injured Valna himself.

“That the advantage of being a ranger: range.”

When it was all over, they were able to cut Li Sun free of the behir stomach. But he was beyond all healing, partially digested and barely recognizable.

Valna pointed out the obvious to Klaxi. “The creature was only able to devour one of us at a time, with a stomach his size. It appears Li Sun has saved our lives one last time.”

The Thri-Kreen turned to him and said, “‘Even in death, the hero can save others.’ The words of my people always rung true to me. But I never dreamed they would apply to a healer.”

Nearby they found some bodies of the sailors who came with Uarion. The blue frog people were apparently feeding the remains to the behir.

Among the bones they found a set of finely made hide armor. Klaxi recognized the hide as coming from a beast from his home world. Kanks are large hive insects that can sometimes be trained and domesticated. When they cannot, they are hunted for their hides.

Their hides are not as highly valued as those of the Athasian roc or the nightmare beast. But on a world where metal is rare, any hide which can be enchanted is highly valued.

Also found among the bones:

a small wooden box containing an elixir of some kind;

2 pieces of amber carved to look like stars;

a strange pair of studded leather boots; and

some bracers which appear to be nothing more than white linen arm guards.

With the Reluctant Help of A Frost Eye

Klaxi made his way to the iceberg…

…so much water…

…cold water…

…so cold it became hard like a rock.

Klaxi had a hard time getting his Athasian mind around the concept. Some of it was almost soft, but some of it was so hard that the structure he had entered — the Nefelese called it an “iceberg” — seemed to have been carved from the hard kind.

Inside, he found a wounded dragonborn, an elven archer, and an ardent healer. The archer pointed up one stairway and said told Klaxi there was a multi-legged blue lizard there. “But the big frogman up this one is headed our way!” he shouted, turning to face the other stairs.

Klaxi rushed up the stairs in time to stop a large blue creature frog-like features from rushing the stairs.

“How dare you invade the barony of Xurgelmek!” shouted the frogman. Pretty soon Klaxi was being peppered by icy blasts from a nearby Beholder while the ardent used one of the tridents (apparently seized from a dead frogman) and provided what healing he could.

The ardent did not seem to notice, but it was readily apparent that the Frost-Eye Beholder’s heart was not really in this fight.

“Maybe I can intimidate him once the baron is dead,” Klaxi thought. “We should be able to demonstrate our ability to hurt him, then he may just take off.”

Andrea Ravn shivered on the small ice floe. She was exhausted. She could hear the battle going on up the stairs. It sounded like they needed her healing. But it was all she could do to heal herself. “At least I told them about the Beholder.”

Li Sun was frustrated with the way the Beholder kept vanishing up a hole in the ceiling each time he took a potshot at them, so he concentrated his attacks on Baron Xurgelmek.

And, with Jonalith taking his own sweet time coming up to help them, Li Sun concentrated his healing on the Thri-Keen who was leading the fight. Li Sun had to be impressed with the way the insect creature was able to get in an extra hit every time they had the baron surrounded and it tried to slip away.

Then two more Arctic Suahagin popped out of a hole filled with sea-water, and Li Sun was glad to see Jonalith show up with his bow.

Amyria asked Belinda to take her back to Sayre. “I think it’s time to shore up our Alliance.”

Jonalith concentrated on taking out the two smaller froggies first, then they were able to surround the big one, who kept calling himself Xurgelmek and demanding they surrender.

Once they took out the smaller creatures, Xurgelmek was easily surrounded. Especially with the fancy footwork of the insect warrior who had joined them. The big frog was harder to take down. But, once they did that they were finally able to prevent the Beholder from dodging up a shaft.

Jonalith finally bloodied the icy Beholder, but he was on his last legs. The Thri-Keen warrior was in no better shape, but he began to threaten and intimidate the Frost-Eye. “These froggies sure had plenty of loyalty to their baron, and look what it got them,” he shouted.

At first the intimidation seemed to have little effect, but Klaxi persisted. Eventually the Beholder gave up, babbling something about the broken promises of dragons. Some sharp questioning gave them a basic idea of the layout above. He also told them the captured githzerai was in the room at the top of the shaft in the ceiling.

“The dragon is doing something with the Seed of Winter up near the top.”

Jonalith asked him if he could be trusted if they let him go.

“Yeah, sure. Frost-Eyes can be trusted. I ain’t coming back to this place. They promised me slaves, and I got none. Instead they almost got me killed. You notice that baron guy trying to protect me? Neither did I.”

With that the Beholder dove into the water and disappeared.

A search of Baron Xurgelmek’s body revealed some unusual magical leather bands on his feet, apparently designed to aid in fighting while prone. Since Klaxi spent so much of the fight on the floor, Jonalith immediately thought of the Thri-Keen fighter.

Arctic Creatures Greet the Newest Members...

…of the Order of the Black Feather…

…with the traditional customs of their people: brandishing their tridents and gnashing their teeth.

Li Sun was frustrated at how hard it was to get at the Arctic Sahuagin swarming his vessel. So he was hardly surprised when Jonalith climbed the mechanical lobster up on the shelf of ice and raced it toward the only exit from entrance cavern.

The stairs beyond seemed to lead up into the iceberg above them and the elf seemed to be trying to prevent the blue frogmen from escaping upward. “Maybe he’s worried about their allies further up.”

As soon as Jonalith had wedged the vehicle into the stairwell, he climbed out and began peppering the Sahuagin with arrows. The creatures immediately abandoned their attempts attack the vessels with tridents thrown from a distance and swarmed the elf on top of the submersible.

“Never seen a ranger tank before.” But Li Sun had to admit that Jonalith was doing a pretty good job of drawing their fire. He saw Andrea jump out and start healing, but the elf needed the healing of an ardent as well.

“Oh, well,” he said, climbing out into the fray, “I guess I’ll have to expose myself as well.”

Tokk’it directed the insectoid creature (which Belinda insisted was her latest recruit) up to the temple which also served as the seat of government in this besieged paradise.

Andrea Ravn was so worried about the damage the Sahuagin priest was handing out that she began to draw deeper on her special reserves. She hardly noticed the disapproval of the others, who were obviously saving their resources for subsequent battles.

Every time they got position on one of the frogmen, the priest would use some power to blast them out of position. The snow was not all that slippery, but the creature seemed to be able to make seem like pure ice.

Toward the end of the fight, Andrea even downed one of her regeneration potions. When Li Sun tried to stop her, she downed it anyway. A few moments later, the potion became invaluable as Andrea herself was knocked unconscious a brought right back by the regeneration.

Even Li Sun had to admit the fight was close enough after the priest exploded in ice shards that the potion may have been necessary.

Klaxi made his way up the steep hillside and met a strange lady at the library. Tokk’it had described it as a temple, but it seemed more dedicated to books and learning to Klaxi. “Maybe they worship knowledge in this culture,” he said, but no one really paid attention. They all seemed to be going about their own business.

Jonalith was glad the blue Sahuagin concentrated on the two healers after they demonstrated their prowess at the beginning of the battle. But he had to use all of his multi-shot tricks with his bow to finish them off at the end.

Li Sun even broke his magic longspear before the battle was over. “That might even be more of a problem than all of the dailies Andrea spent,” he told the ardent.

They found nothing on the bodies except some tridents to replace Li Sun’s broken weapon.

Andrea spotted an underwater tunnel leading upward. Since it was too small for the submersibles, the Dragonborn warlord decided to swim it herself. She returned quickly admitting that she had aroused the attention of “the largest froggie I’ve ever seen.”

She did get a pretty detailed look at the room, describing a Frost-Eye Beholder guarding a tunnel exiting the ceiling.

Jonalith decided he better do the scouting.

Picking the left-most stairs — “furthest from where Andrea found the Arctic Sahuagin,” he reasoned — he crept up and around the corner. But the Frost-Touched Behir spotted him quickly and he retreated.

“Only one way left to try,” he said as he mounted the other stair. Jonalith could not see the Frost-Eye or the shaft that Andrea mentioned, but it was hard to miss the giant Arctic Sahuagin turning his way.

The Iceberg Known as Icehome...

…Using Vehicles which Look Like…

…giant mechanical lobsters, the three adventurers had to split up: Li Sun and Jonalith took the first submersible, while Andrea Ravn had to go it alone in the second.

Andrea Ravn remembered most of what her teachers had said about Nefelus. “Sure, the city of Magic has been out of contact with the rest of the world for over 400 years,” her master told her. “But that is hardly ancient history. Two millenia have passed since the world heard from the Dragonborn Empire.”

Nefelus was an island nation when it came to prominence defeating a great evil that threatened the whole world. But they came to believe the rest of the world was insufficiently grateful for their efforts.

“They had nothing to do with the causes of the problem, at least in their minds,” her master told her. “But they were crucial to the solution and they thought everyone should be mindful of their contribution.”

Andrea understood the lack of appreciation might have been only in the minds of the Nefelese, but that was enough for them to withdraw from the rest of civilization and become isolationist. “As if hiding from the world would mean the problems of the world would never find you,” she thought.

As soon as the city came into view, Andrea saw the Temple. Famous the world over Andrea was clear that the building housed one of the greatest libraries in the world. While she hungered to break off from the party and explore its shelves, she found herself ushered along with the rest of her group.

Andrea was happy to find that their guides (who acted as much like guards as ushers) took them to the Temple itself. Amyria told them to wait while she met with the Thraxinium (some sort of council of mages which ruled over this magocracy).

Eventually they were able to question their host — a member of this august body — who told them about the magickal assault Nefelus found itself under.

“Just before Nefelus was blockaded by the ice we sent three ships to find the source of the problem,” he told them. “Two were lost, but one made it to the iceberg. The crew perished, save one. Uarion was a Githzerai whose mental powers enabled him to make it inside, but we do not know what became of him once he got too close to the Seed of Winter.”

Before she knew what she was saying, Andrea — along with Jonalith and Li Sun — had promised to rescue Uarion, capture the Seed of Winter, break the blockade, and free Nefelus from the icy ring which surrounded it.

“At least, we can bring back his body,” she thought to herself.

After Amyria told them this promise the thing to bring Nefelus into the coalition, Bejam took them to three vessels capable of traveling underwater.

“Perhaps, if you approach unseen, you will not be attacked like the other three vessels,” he told them.

Andrea was so confident in her ability to figure out the submersibles that she decided to pilot one by herself. She recognized the vessels as Apparatuses of Kwalish. Confident that she knew enough of the history of Kwalish (a renowned inventor and magician) that she could figure out the controls.

Once she was in the craft, she found she did not remember as much as she thought she did. Before she was able to use what she remembered about how Kwalish like to design his inventions, she was floundering around in the shallows.

“I hope that doesn’t attract the attention of the Arctic Sahaugin Bejam told us about. I don’t like frogmen, even if these are blue.”

Klaxi found the City of Argent in the midst of a siege. An older gentleman, who seemed to be in charge of its magickal defenses, asked him to go to Nefelus to recruit additional mages. “I think Amyria has a plan to enlist their aid,” he said. “Belinda of Fallcrest should be able to help you find her.” Then he gave the insect-warrior a scroll which would take him to Belinda’s mother. “Perhaps you should avoid mentioning all this to her father.”

Jonalith was not sure what was going on in the other submersible, but it didn’t look good.

“Perhaps I can lead her to a safer path,” he told Li Sun, who was in the same craft. “An elf should be able to find the way, even underwater.”

Watching the currents it did not take him long to guide the mechanical lobster into a narrow trench pointed straight towards the iceberg.

“Not only will this protect us from observation, but look at those currents.”

Once Li Sun had them point out, he was amazed. “Those’ll cut 30 minutes off the time the trip takes us.” Jonalith knew Li was thinking about the limited air in their vessel. Then she saw Andrea avoiding some of the Sahuagin as she scurried her vessel into the trench behind them.

He saw Li Sun was using his arcane knowledge to figure out how to operate the claws of the lobster. “just stick your hands in here and wiggle your fingers,” the ardent said as the claws lifted up off the muddy bottom. “I should be able to even help you move along. And, if we have to fight some blue froggies….”

The claws snapped enthusiastically.

Tokk’it was hardly surprised when another adventurer came through the portal with Belinda. But the nature of the creature… “He seems to be some kind of insect,” he whispered to the young wizardess, who nodded with a smile.

Through the sealed porthole, Li Sun could see that Andrea was finally getting the hang of the controls. “Maybe all that history helped her figure out some of the quirks of these machines. Kwalish sure had some funny ideas about how to make them do what you want them to do.”

Just then Jonalith dropped the submersible all the way into the lowest point in the trench. “More frog-boys,” he whispered, and Li Sun frantically gesture back to Andrea. The warlord seemed to get the message and slowed her vessel as well.

As Andrea sat motionless, apparently waiting for the Sahuagin to pass, she seemed to be practicing with the claws which Li Sun had already mastered. “Finally trying out her Arcana skills,” he told Jonalith.

Sure enough, when they started up again, he could see the dragonborn was using the claws as well as the legs to propel the craft forward. A little fiddling with his own arcane skills and Li Sun was helping push his submersible along as well.

As they approached the iceberg, Li Sun could see the frozen formation had reached all the way to the bottom. “That could make it hard to climb up,” he said to the elf.

But Jonalith was already on it. He found a narrow tunnel leading upward into the iceberg. As the ranger steered the vessel inside, Li Sun turned around to see that Andrea’s lobster was still following.

Surrounding the Island-City-State...

…known as Nefalus.

Tokk’it guided the Conqueror toward the spot where Amyria’s maps suggested the island city-state of Nefelus was located. But all he could see was a fog bank up ahead.

And the allies Amyria had promised him for this adventure had so far been slow to arrive. Li Sun and Andrea Ravn had showed up — through the portal Belinda left on the foredeck — but he was expecting more help for such an important mission. But a warlord and an ardent might be just the ticket if they needed a lot of healing in their attempt to run the blockade.

Still, a blockade made of fog was not what Tokk’it had expected.

“Strange way to set up a blockade. Seems like ships could just sail right through it. Still, the fog may be hiding the real obstacle.” But what navy — trying to blockade an island — would hide themselves in such an unnatural fog? “Surely that would help the blockade-runners more than the blockade.”

He adjusted the horizontal tiller a bit to bring his airship up to a high altitude as it entered the fog bank.

Amyria knew she faced a difficult task getting everyone in the Alliance to accept a single leader. “And it will only be harder once the Nefelese are involved. Lord Torrance will surely be jealous of the superior magickal resources of Nefelus.” She remained certain the Alliance needed everything it could muster.

Li Sun stood on the foredeck, squinting into the mist. Now that the Conqueror had entered the fog, he could barely see the end of the bowsprit jutting out in front of the airship.

The ardent only spotted the iceberg after a ghost-sailor in the crow’s nest shouted out and Tokk’it threw the ship hard to starboard to avoid it.

“What is an iceberg doing to high?” Li Sun was sure they entered the fog at least 100 feet above the water and the captain was obviously trying to get even higher. But as the ship narrowly avoided the ’berg, he could see just how big it was.

And Tokk’it was angling the vessel upward so rapidly that Li Sun had to grab the railing. Even so, the airship barely reached the lip of a growing wall of ice.

“That’s what they are trying to block the island with! A giant wall — or even a hemishere — of ice.”

But the barracade still had a hole in it. And Tokk’it was trying to smash it larger by driving the airship through the hole.

And whoever was erecting the ice-wall was not taking chances: Ice giants were positioned at the hole. They were already directing volleys of Icy Arrows at the heroes on the decks of the ships. Andrea, the dragonborn, was valiantly trying to operate the ballista on the main deck.

When her first bolt was easily dodges by one of the giants who did not have a frostbow, the warlord gave that up as a bad job.

Amyria did not hesitate. She ran out on the bowsprit as it punched into the ice and leapt to the flat ice at the bottom of the hole, taking the fight right to the giants. When Andrea followed her out onto the ice, Li Sun decided she would have to get out there and help them.

The airship slowed significantly as the bow plowed into the ice-wall, but Li Sun could see that the ice was breaking. Perhaps they could smash through.

Once he got out on the ice, he caught up with the others. Then it was time to fight a rear-guard action as the giant from the other side of the ship circled around in front of the vessel and tried to trap Andrea in an icy vice.

Amyria was able to fight valiantly against the giants, but nothing she did could stop them from attacking the two healers.

Then, as the first of the Ice Giants fell to Amyria’s onslaught, Li Sun saw the airship break through to the other side of ice wall.

All they had to do was fight their way back aboard…

…before the vessel slid through the hole.

Klaxi was not sure why he had been summoned to the queen’s chamber, but he was sure it was a great honor. “If I was in trouble, she would certainly send out her drones to punish me.” But he was not prepared for her request that he represent the hive in some faraway city called Argent. “On another plane, no less.”

As the Conqueror worked its way through the hole in the iceberg-wall surrounding Nefelus, Andrea Ravn saw Li Sun step easily aboard. The ship continued to slide forward and Amyria was able to leap the remaining distance to the vessel.

Knowing she had stubby dragon wings to help her leaping ability, Andrea stayed behind to delay the Ice Giants and prevent them from getting aboard the ship. But she was overwhelmed when the giants concentrated their efforts on her.

Apparently stopping anyone from breaking through their blockade was important to them.

Even if the “anyone” was just a dragonborn warlord from the swamps of a dead empire.

Slowed by the icy cold from the giants, Andrea had little chance to make the leap

So, when Li Sun threw her the rope he had tied to the mast earlier, she leapt into the fog and ended up swinging from the stern of the airship. Li Sun came over to help her climb up the rope, but a swing and a leap — aided by her stubby little wings — was all it took.

“No climbing required,” she exulted as she landed on the afterdeck, admitting she did not relish being dragged along the ice until Li Sun had pulled her above the keel.

We are ending the tax-season hiatus this Saturday (May 7).

And the Rogue Mage Locks them...

Ragnar the Mighty wasn’t about let a measly door stand in his way. Jon said it was magickally locked, but that didn’t stop Ragnar. He lowered his head and tried to smash it in.

And rebounded from the door without even touching it.

So, he tried again.

And bounced off without damaging the door. The elf suggested they both try at once. And, sure enough, the door opened to their combined strengths.

Inside they found a crystal ball, a curtain, and a desk. Ragnar lifted the curtain and found a robed magician.

Paldemar!

He charged and Paldemar disappeared. Jonalith got a shot off, Paldemar used his invisibility to make his escape and lock the two of them in his room.

Deciding to take advantage of the situation to steal anything that wasn’t nailed down, Ragnar approached the crystal ball. But, as soon as he tried to pick it up, he saw a figure in shadowy robes within the crystal. It reached out its arm as if pointing toward him. A psychic blast hit him in the forehead, and the crystal ball shattered into hundreds of shards.

“I guess those pieces won’t be worth much,” he told Jon.

Paldemar took advantage of this situation by taking pot shots at from one door and then the other. So they wrestled the bed they found behind the curtain to block one door and positioned themselves near the larger door. Ragnar got off a surprise attack when the Mage opened the door and Jonalith managed to slip inside before the Norker Slinger who was helping Paldemar could shut the door.

Even though his blow had driven Paldemar to the ground, the wizard managed to get inside and restore his Mage Lock on the door.

“Magic,” the barbarian cursed and proceeded to take his anger out on the slinger. Unable to use his sling, the Norker was reduced to ankle-biting and daggers. Ragnar and Jonalith finished him off pretty quickly. But not before another Norker showed up. Ragnar recognized this one as a berserker.

By the twin flails he was wielding.

Just then, Jerath showed up.

“Well, that was strange,” the hobbit said to his sister. “One of those Mages of Saruun came asking me about why we haven’t seen any of them around lately. How should I know?”

Jerath followed the instructions he got from Blackguards’ Bane after the assassin let him through the hidden door at a turn in the Road of Lanterns. The Spirit of Vecna demanded lore, power or his soul, but ended up satisfied with very little.

He made his way through two levels of the tower-like maze and found Li Sun and some others. The ardent was in pretty bad shape, but told Jerath to hurry through yet another portal. “Jon and Ragnar have gone ahead to find Paldemar, but I fear they’re going to need your healing.” Then Li Sun explained the layout of the next level.

Taking stock of the situation, Jerath decided to go straight to the big room to find Jonalith and Ragnar. And they sure were in need of healing. But as soon as he started that task, he found himself attacked by a wizard who had appeared behind him.

And then the statue of Vecna began blasting him as well.

Jonalith told him he couldn’t take any more healing, but that was just as well. Jerath backed away from the statue, but Ragnar insisted on charging repeatedly at a Norker who was sheltering near it. He needed all the healing Jerath could deliver.

There’s only so much that words of encouragement can do.

Once the Norker went down, Jerath hid behind one the crystal pillars whose magic Paldemar had depleted and sent the wizard blundering into the path of one of Ragnar’s charges. At first the barbarian didn’t understand what Jerath was doing, but once he saw Paldemar blunder toward him, he was glad to charge and attack.

“Paldemar not only sent us off on that wild goose chase,” one white-robed mage told the other, “he seems to have disappeared himself. The halfling just told me no one has seen the any of our Order for several days. After he promised he would keep up appearances in our absence.”

Jonalith saw his chance. The giant Bronze Warder could not make its way between the pillars and other obstacles to attack the bard, but it still had one chance to attack. It would have to target the barbarian instead of Jerath.

And there was only one path toward Ragnar.

So Jon put a trap right in the middle of that path. He could see that the giant construct noticed the trap, but it apparently thought it could push its way past, relying on its enormous bulk to absorb the trap’s damage.

“Not this trap,” he thought as the contraption stepped on the trap and slid backwards, its motion momentarily arrested. When it tried to move again, it found iself slowed dramatically.

When the Idol of Vecna sent a fiery blast his way, Jonalith realized that he could draw its fire by staying close to it and his resistance to that element would prevent all but the most extreme fire damage.

“Nobody get close to the Idol,” he shouted. “I’ll draw its fire. I can take it.”

That was all it took to finish off Paldemar. Then it was simply a matter of maneuvering to places the Warder could not reach and pot-shotting it with arrows.

...of his Fellows from the Order...

…Li Sun Decides to Scout the Lair of Paldemar…

…alone.

The dim light of the Shrine of Vecna seemed to come from the walls themselves. Li Sun could see three doors. Knowing that Paldemar was aware his infernal machine had been destroyed, he tested each door quietly.

The door to the west was locked.

The door to the east was unlocked. The ardent opened it quietly and saw another of the Bronze Warder. Fortunately, the Warder did not see Li Sun as he quietly closed the door.

The door to the north was unlocked as well. But the occupants of this room were on high alert. They spotted him immediately. He slammed the door and retreated through the portal behind him.

Once he was back with the rest of his team, he reported what he had seen in his brief glimpse into the Shrine of Vecna:

A statue of Vecna, crafted from iron and very large. A skeletal figure in robes, missing its left eye and left hand.

A symbol of Vecna, crafted as a mosaic into the floor in the center of this minor temple. A severed hand holding and eyeball.

Four crystal pillars, crafted from crystalline rock. Arrayed about the room.

Two brazier, crafted of brass. Providing garish shadows to the lighting.

An Idol of Vecna, crafted from black rock. Fashioned into a giant skull with an eye set in its right socket. The left socket is empty.

He told his teammates of the occupants who spotted him:

Several Norkers, the creatures who resembled hobgoblins who had been plaguing them since they had entered the Tower of Mysteries (some were armed with slings, some with flails); and

At least one cloaked figure which resembled the Enigmas of Vecna they had already fought.

After his Infernal Machine Is Destroyed...

…Paldemar Makes a Brief Appearance…

…and promises to kill those who have foiled his plans.

Jonalith heard clanking noises ahead which Li Sun and Lagolas could not seem to detect. So he quietly proceeded down the wide corridor from which they emerged. Peeking around a corner he saw a large bronze machine marching inexorably toward the party.

“Some kind of guard device,” he thought.

Didn’t take long to figure out the Bronze Warder could shove pretty much anybody out of it’s way. At first Jonalith thought he could hide behind a teammate and throw magic daggers at it.

But the bronze creature would charge him every time. And, if Lagolas was in the way, it would knock him to the ground.

Lag was spending a lot of time on the floor.

Just when Jon realized the big bronze behemoth could not charge between the pillars around the teleportation circle, the doors on the other side of the corridor opened up and two more creature started pot-shotting him: Another Enigma of Vecna and a goblinoid of some sort.

This put an end to any plans Jonalith had of hiding behind the pillars and taking some pot shots of his own. “Sure, I could wear the Bronze Warder with him being able to get at me. But those other two would do the same to me.”

Amyria looked to the assassin in anticipation. She had sent Blackguard’s Bane to seek out Li Sun and Sun, along with the rest of their team. “They should be about finished with the slavers in Thunderspire,” she suggested. She had already sent Tokk’it ahead to scout the island nation of Nefalus, with one of Belinda’s teleportation circles inscribed on the deck of his ship.

Li Sun saw that the Norker was opening the door for the Enigma, and the Enigma was sniping with impunity. So he rushed the door the next time it opened and discovered what was inside the room.

An Infernal Machine of some sort was standing near the center the table around the room were covered with bottles. “Looks like acid to me,” he thought.

This was confirmed a few moments later when Jonalilth joined him in the laboratory. When Jon missed a swing, he knocked over some bottles and was burned by their contents.

Meanwhile, Lagolas was still getting knocked over by the Bronze Warder, which had followed them into the lab.

Blackguard’s Bane told Amyria, “They discovered a complication. After they mopped up the Duergar slavers they found evidence they were working with someone who was trying to take over the Mages of Saruun. Or maybe take over from the Mages. That led them to a bunch of evil-worshipping Gnolls. The leader of the Gnolls apparently knew who was out to get rid of the other Mages. Paldemar, one of their own. Now they are trying clear him out of his fortress.”

Tired of constantly getting knocked back down, Lagolas decided to try firing from the floor. His burning spray was able to hit all three of his adversaries, so he started trying out his more powerful spells.

It didn’t take long for the three adventurers to clear out the lab.

Then they took a closer look at the Infernal Machine. The others could not make heads or tails of the large, glass container. But Lagolas had a good idea once he saw the head of a Bronze Warder floating inside. The tubes and pipes were obviously designed to help keep the head alive.

But, Lagolas saw the ritual that was being prepared, he knew this machine was almost ready for a far more sinister purpose: taking control of all the Bronze Warders in the Thunderspire Labyrinth and deposing the Mages of Saruun.

For the Mages used these bronze contraptions to rule. Lagolas wasn’t certain how good their rule was.

But it had to be better than rule by a cult dedicated to Vecna.

He convinced the others to let him destroy the Infernal Machine, and they hid behind the lab tables. A good thing, too, since the machine’s acrid, glowing green liquid sprayed all around when it burst.

It didn’t take Paldemar long to realize the ritual had been stopped. As soon as the machine was destroyed, he teleported into the room to see who had done the damage.

“Oh, you shall die for this!” was all he said before teleporting away again.

Joins the Party...

…and is immediately gunned down…

Ragnar the Mighty lowered his head and charged the pillar that had attacked him, but Wicked Fang seemed unimpressed.

“That’s nothing but stone, you fool,” the sword whispered. “You have to find the source of the attack.”

So Ragnar charge southward. There he found Norker minions pouring from yet another portal. And he was also attacked by stouter goblinoids with battleaxes. And he began to wish he had spent a little more time practicing his defenses.

But LI Sun’s healing was not keeping up with the damage he has taking.

Ragnar began to suspect he was going to need his battle rage.

Valna discussed the Order of the Black Feather with the Lord Warden of Fallcrest and became convinced the Order had been infiltrated by at least one agent of The Winter Court. Even the warden’s intelligence officers seemed certain of this. He decided the best way to keep an eye on them was to offer his services, taking care of their mounts. These Trihorn Behemoths had been taken into The Thunderspire Labyrinth by members of the Order who were clearing the place of slavers for the Lord Warden. Once he got to the Seven-Pillared Hall the huge beasts weren’t hard to find, stabled at an inn run by a local hobbit.

At first, Jon the Elf thought holing up in the small room he had discovered was the best strategy. They searched the room for any sign of the creatures who were attacking through the pillars. But they found nothing.

Jonalith could see that they could defend the doorway well enough. But, as long as the pillars could attack them with impunity, they would eventually be worn down.

After Ragnar attempted to scout the portal from which the Norkers were emerging, Jon came to the conclusion they had to search the room on the other side of the portal.

Valna of the Moonstair introduced himself to the halfling who brought in Blackguard’s Bane. The revenant took Valna to a secret door on the Road of Lanterns and showed him where Li Sun and the others had gone. Once Valna went through a test of his lore, he found himself surrounded by pillars which were casting lightning bolts at him. And other magicks as well. By the time he caught up with the Order of the Black Feather, he was on his last legs.

Li Sun was glad to see help arrive. But the elven ranger did not look to be in any better shape that the rest of the new recruits.

In fact, he slumped unconscious from the blasts emanating from the pillars shortly after appearing from around the corner.

“Oh, well,” sighed the ardent, “I guess I better heal him as well.”

By this time, Ragnar and Jonalith had discovered Enigmas of Vecna holed up in the other room.

“Surely, these are the creatures who have potshotting us through the pillars,” he thought.

Once they had surrounded the strange creatures, this theory was confirmed. In a most unfortunate manner. Once the Enigmas were bloodied, they exploded into a cloud of horrific visages and then rushed in a flesh-ripper rage.

As Explained by Two Demons...

…to a Goblin.

Li Sun looked over the Revenant, the Minotaur, and the Elf who had joined him. The only one he knew was the elf who had brought him their mounts. An odd mix, but he was glad Amyria had sent them. Ki’sho and Sun Li were in no shape to do battle with an archmage after the fights they had with the Gnolls and their demonic friends.

Apparently one of the Mages of Saruun had gone rogue and was trying to take over. He was using the Duergar and Gnolls to accomplish some secret plan.

But Li Sun had the key. And the key seemed to know where it wanted to go. First it led them to the Seven-Pillared Hall, then to the Road of Lanterns, and finally to this nondescript portion of that road.

Where they found a keyhole.

Li Sun placed the key in the keyhole and a secret door opened. Revealing a long passage, which led to a room with a circle of teleportation inscribed in its center. When Drake walked up to it, the circle turned out to have some powers of summoning as well. A spectral figure, clad in thick robes of the deepest scarlet appeared in a blinding flash. It was missing its left hand. And, while an eye filled the right socket in its spectral head (really little more than a skull, from what Li Sun could see), the left socket was empty.

“The secrets of the tower come at a price. You must each pay for the right to enter this place. What can you offer to the dreaded Lord of Secrets? I seek lore, power, and your souls.”

“L’esprit de L’escalier,”Ambassador Tien told the goblin cheiftain, “is the spirit of the staircase.” Takin was thoroughly confused by this, so Tien explained. “You see, the high elves who originated the expression often held their balls high up in the forest on platforms perched in the trees or hanging from the branches. To get up to these woody ballrooms, they had to climb long, ornate staircases. And to leave the ball they had to descend the same stairs. They noticed that sometimes they did not think of the perfect retort for their rivals’ insults until they were leaving the ball when their wit did them no good. I suspect something like this is happening to the four members of the Golden Scales who failed to protect their souls from the Spirit of Vecna.”

Ragnar the Mighty avoided being blinded by the flash of light — admittedly by fleeing, but this gave him his chance…

…so he charged the thing he feared.

As Wicked Fang passed harmlessly through the apparition’s gut, the Spirit of Vecna laughed. “You cannot intimidate me because you cannot harm me!”

“So, what was it you wanted?” Ragnar asked, somewhat meekly.

“Fool! Only three things will get you into the Tower of Mysteries: lore, power or your souls.”

Li Sun tried a bit of history, but it turned out to be something the spirit already knew. And Drake whispered to the others: “It cannot be intimidated, enjoys flattery, and is susceptible to well-told lies. The lore it seeks is arcane lore, historical lore and religious lore.”

Ragnar decided to try a little flattery. At first, his compliments were a little too subtle for the apparition. It thought he was trying to intimidate it again. But once it realized he was commenting on its powers, it seemed to be pleased.

Drake ran into a similar problem when he tried to compliment the spirit on its ability to pretend to be a ghost. At first, the apparition was confused more than flattered.

“I’m trying to say I’m impressed!” the blackguard raged. And eventually Ragnar thought it mollified, if not totally impressed by the compliment.

Li Sun switched to arcane lore, but the Spirit of Vecna was no more impressed by it than by the historical tidbet Ragnar tried next: “What is my true name?”

“Ragnarok!” shrieked the spirit. That was an easy one."

Alen saw that Takin was still not getting it. “Any of them coulda mentioned that the Raven Queen appears to be working with a certain Platinum Dragon. She’s been trying to keep that quiet, so there’s a good chance Vecna wouldn’t know it. And even if he knew it, he might not have shared it with all his minions. The Spirit mighta thought he could really impress his boss with dat kinda info. Any of dem adventurers who thought about it after was probably kickin’ demselves for not thinkin’ of it in time. Dat’s the Spirit of the Stairwell.”

Jonalith watched his friends struggle with the difficult task of coming up with things Vecna did not know. It was hard. Vecna was, after all, the Master of Secrets. Jonalith had difficulty coming up with things such a master would not know.

But he did have friends who knew many secrets. Samwise and Jerath had come to the court of Fallcrest during the time he was there. And Sam shared the secrets of a weapon that he coveted. He had told Jon about the Darkblade of Melegaunt and its origins.

“Did you know the Darkblade of Melegaunt is a dagger made of shimmering black glass?” he asked the apparition.

“Why, yes, I did,” the spirit replied. “In fact, I know that it’s tip trails shadowy tendrils as it seeks its target’s most vulnerable spots.”

“But… but did you know it was forged in a Pact with a prince of Netheril?”

“Hmm, no, I did not. Perhaps Vecna himself knows, but I will have to take this knowledge to him to find out. This is truly lore which might be of use.”

After Ragnar failed another historical lore gambit, Jonalith saw Li Sun was taking another tack while sticking to the Well of Demons theme. “I would have thought such a spirit as yourself would have known all about Maldrick Scarmaker’s death.”

“Well, yes. But now I do.” The Spirit of Vecna seemed to be impressed by the backhanded compliment, but Jon was worried the effectiveness of flattery might soon be coming to end.

“You can only do so much of that kind of thing,” he thought, "before it becomes obvious.

Takin the Scared finally thought he had it. "So dese hot-shot adventurers been goin’ around discoverin’ all dese secrets? And den dey can’t even remember ‘em when it counts? Dat’s what dis “spirit” thing is all about? Kinda like when some troll insults me in front of da boss and I don’t think to call him a snotnose until later. Even though I can see the snot when I’m standing right dere. OK, OK. I gets it. But what I don’t get is why you two keep talkin’ about the stairs. Dere aren’t any stairs in dat tower."

Drake the Enforcer was impressed when Li Sun showed the map to the Well of Demons to the spectre. So he tried another bit of lore about the well. “And the guardian of the well, a green dragon, is now dead!”

“Dead? I did not know that.”

Jonalith told a story about a new religion rising up around Amyria. At first he thought the was making something up, but as the details emerged it became clear he was talking about the worshipful attitude some of the Githzerai were taking toward the Deva paladin. And the spirit seemed genuinely impressed with this lore.

Drake noticed Ragnar was whispering to his sword. Suddenly the Minotaur looked up and shouted, “I bet you do not know the role that the Raven Queen played in creating my sword.”

“You mean the power she channeled from Drake’s curse, empowering it and giving it a life of its own?” smirked the Spirit of Vecna. “Anyone who worships Vecna could see that as soon as they saw your blade. We are not so ignorant of matters arcane and religious as you. It is obvious that you and your friends have no more to offer the Lord of Secrets. I will leave you your powers, and simply take a bit of your souls.”

As the apparition disappeared, Drake felt a small portion of his reserves dwindle. But he knew that he had some left.

And he heard the spirit’s last words in his head, “You may now enter the Tower of Mysteries. May its secrets intrigue you.”

Hearing that, Drake stepped into the circle. And was teleported into another room in a blinding flash. He was standing in the middle of a 20-foot-by-20-foot room with two exits — one north and one west. The walls of this chamber are covered with carvings that depict human faces. Each face is wearing either a blindfold or a gag.

Drake noticed that, as soon as he stepped through, all the blindfolded faces animated and began to chant. All the gagged faces seemed to animate as well, but they simply glared at the interlopers as each of his companions materialized in the circle in the middle of the room.

To the north and to the west, Drake saw pillars in the corridors beyond. These were also covered with carvings of faces, but these faces were different. No gags; no blindfolds. Each face seemed to be missing one eye.

They did not seem to be animated like those in the room Drake was standing in. But every once in a while he seemed to see one animate out of the corner of his eye. As so as he looked at the one which he thought was animating, it froze again as stone.

Spreading Rumors Throughout the Former Empire...

…of the Dragonborn.

Strangely enough, though, the rumors all seem to be about the Great Gark and his interest in another ancient empire: that of the Minotaurs of Thunderspire Labyrinth.

Sun Li turned to her twin. “I think you better go investigate that noise. I am wounded, but I can still go through these papers we found on the Gnoll.” When Li Sun was gone, she examined the map, which seemed to show a secret tower built into Thunderspire itself. “Hmmm, maps are always a good thing in a Minotaur labyrinth.” The rest of the papers seemed to be letters from a wizard who was plotting against the Mages of Saruun. “He may even have infiltrated their order,” Sun Li mused. “He seems to have been quite open about his plans when writing to his Gnollish ally.”

“I have a job for one of your imps,” Amyria told Maxim Shalion, "the one who can send messages. I need him to convince some of our Dragonborn allies to go to Thunderspire Labyrinth. Then she told him the names: Lagolas and Andrea Ravn. “I believe they will play a great role in the events to come. I would prefer you not mention this task to the other members of The Golden Scales.”

“Are they within 100 miles of here?” Maxim asked, remembering the limitation on the distance he could send Ambassador Tien.

“Yes, one of them is in the mountains east of Fallcrest. That one is a sorceror who has lost his family. The other, Andrea, is a Warlord who may be able to help Li Sun with some complications she has run into.”

“Complications?”

“Belinda’s father sent Li Sun and his twin sister to clean up a slaver problem, but it has turned into a bit more than just some Duergar slave trading. I need your ambassador imp to convince them to go to The Seven-Pillared Hall in Thunderspire to meet up with Li Sun and Sun Li.”

“Gladly. If it will help The Great Gark.”

“The Great Gark — and, indeed, all of us — will profit from thwarting the plans of someone who worships Vecna. But, remember, your average Dragonborn is a strong believer in ancient honor. They may not react the way you might when a demon appears, trying to tell them what to do.”

A grin began to spread across Maxim’s face. “Then I can tell them whatever I want?”

“As long as it gets them to Thunderspire,” Amyria sighed.

And Maxim began whisper to the air about the Great Gark and his plans.

A rampaging Minotaur was the last thing Li Sun was expecting to find in the Well of Demons, but that was what she found. “I guess it was built by the creatures,” she admitted to herself. And he did seem to have a pretty impressive magic sword. She explained what was going on and they decided to join forces against Paldemar.

Andrea Ravn was not impressed with what she had seen of Lagolas so far. He came stumbling out of the mountains, raving about an attack on Andrea’s village, an attack he seemed to think had already happened. When Andrea pointed this out, he started rambling about a demon who had told him the Great Gark was attacking the village.

“You believe everything a demon tells you?” she asked the sorcerer.

“Well, no…” the interloper started. Just then he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of an imp, just like the one Lagolas had described. “That’s him!”

“Ambassador Tien, at your service,” the imp said. “Well, actually, at the service of the Great Gark and HIS servant, Maxim Shalion. They had information the two of you could help the enemies of the Great Gark and his ally.”

Andrea was puzzled. “Ally?”

“Well, the Great Gark has entered into an alliance of convenience with some minion of Vecna. Kind of a poser, if you ask me, but he serves the purposes the Great Gark has created for him.”

Seeing the demon could be drawn out with questions, Andrea asked him why he had lied about the attack on her village. And the imp laughed.

“That was just to keep you two away from Thunderspire. Now, Paldemar can take over.”